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TOBACCO. 



FROM THE SEED TO THE WAREHOUSE. 



A PRACTICAL HAND BOOK 



FOIl TIIK 



TOBACCO PLANTER, 



AVITH 



IIISTOl-UCAL AND MEDICINxVL FACTS FOR 
THE CONSUMER. 



By B. rush SENSENEY, M. D. 



CHAMBERSKURG, PA.: 

JOHN M. POMEROY, PUBLISHER. 

1878. 



i 



Price, ONE DOLLAR, Sent Post-paid. Address Publisher. 



TOBACCO. 

FROM THE SEED TO THE WAREHOUSE. 



A PRACTICAL HAND BOOK 



FOR THE 



TOBACCO PLANTER, 

EMBRACING THE AUTHOR'S OWN PRACTICAL EXPB- 
R FENCE IN CULTIVATING AND CURING THE WEED, 

AND THE 

METHODS PRACTICED IN VIRGINIA, KENTUCKY, MARYLAND, PENN- 
SYLVANIA, CONNECTICUT, MISSOURI, NEW YORK, NORTH 
CAROLINA, OHIO, THE ISLAND OF CUBA AND OTHER 
DISTRICTS WHERE THE PLANT IS GROWN. 



THE ci:lti\',\tio.\, mm m iiaxdlim of tobadco. 

"^ ' BY B. RUSH SENSEIVEY, M. D. 



CHAMBERSBURG, PA.: 

JOHN M. POMEROY, PUBLISHER. 

1878. 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year Istv, ky 

JOHN M. POMEROY, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 






-o 



INTRODUCTION. 

I present this work to the public making no claim for it 
as a literary effort, but simply as embodying my own prac- 
tical experience in the cultivation of Tobacco, coupled 
with observations and useful facts obtained from successful 
growers of the plant. 

The cultivation of the weed in the United States, and 
notably in Pennsylvania, is attaining such immense propor- 
tions that a small hand book for cultivator's use, is a pres- 
ent necessity. This want I have endeavored to fill. Mj 
observations have, in the main, been confined to the States 
of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky and Con- 
necticut; but the information embodied in this work will 
be found adaptable to any State or Territory where the 
plant can be grown. 

I have presented facts and experiences as they were 
found among men who were most successful in winning 
wealth by means of the weed — by growing it, and curing 
it, and selling it. I leave all theorizing and hypothesis to 
others. I endeavor to show where, when and how mistakes 
are made and how to guard against them, and most partic- 
ularly have I endeavored to make it plain to the poor man, 
he who owns but a single acre or two of land, how he may 
with energy and industry, lift himself from poverty to com- 
fort, if not aifluence. 

Charnbersburg^ Pa, The Author. 



The late Dr. Chapman, a most brilliant and elegant 
writer, penned the following tribute to " the weed : " The 
history of this plant is interesting. The product of a little 
spot, the island of Tobago, it has engaged the attention of 
the sordid and enchanted the witty and wise. Everywhere 
its powers are felt and its fascinations acknowledged. The 
Arab cultivates it in his burning desert. The Laplander 
risks his life to procure it amidst his snows. No privation 
is too severe to the seaman or the soldier while he com- 
mands this luxury. Even polished man, with all the com- 
forts of elegant society, cannot dispense with his cigar." 



HISTOLOGY. 

Tobacco — ''Genus Nicotiana.' 



CHAPTER I. 

The derivation of the name Tobacco is in dispute. Some 
historians ascribe it to tlie Indian Tabacos, a pipe. This 
name was given by the natives of the Carribee Islands to 
the pipe in which they smoked the leaves of the plant. 
Others trace it to one of the Provinces or States of Mexico, 
Tabasco, whilst still others claim its derivation from Tobasco 
an Island in tlie gulf of Florida. 

It would appear that the most direct and indisputable 
testimony is that which claims for it derivation from "Ta- 
bacos," the name which the Spaniards heard the natives use 
when speaking of the pipe in which they made use of the 
fragrant plant. 

The genus name, Nicotiana, is said to have been derived 
from Jean Nicot, an ambassador from France to Portugal, 
who first in 1560 conveyed a ship load of the weed from 
Lisbon to France. Nicot, hence Nicot-iana. 

The knowledge of Tobacco and its uses was unknown to 
Europeans until after the discovery of America by Colum- 
bus. When that adventurer and his followers landed at an 
island which he named Hispaniola, in honor of the country 
which had encouraged his great enterprise, he found the 
natives smoking a plant, the perfume of which was fragrant 
and grateful, and they afterwards learned that from the 



6 Tobacco Culture. 

earliest ages, it had been the custom of the natives to offer 
it in their sacrifices to the divinity, under the belief that its 
aroma was more grateful to him than any other incense. 
The priests also of these aborigines, before declaring their 
oracle?, were in the habit of intoxicating themselves by its 
means; and the medicine men employed it in divining 
the nature of maladies. Thus, then, the Spaniards acquired 
first a knowledge of its uses and virtues, and on their re- 
turn home introduced it into Spain and Portugal; and it 
was, while ambassador of France to the Court of Lisbon, 
that Jean Nicot, as before I have told, became acquainted 
with it and its use from a Flemish merchant, who had 
formed one of the expedition to America and carried a load 
from Spain to France. Jean Niaot presented it to the 
grand prior and to the queen, Catharine de Medici, whence 
it obtained the names then in voo^ue of " 1' herbe du e'rand 
prieur " and " 1' herbe de hx reine," which eventually were 
changed to "1' herbe Nicotiana" or the Nicotian weed, 
which it retains to this day both poetically and in a botani- 
cal sense. 

The followers of Columbus noticed that the natives puffed 
smoke from their mouths and noses. The}' hurned the 
dried leaves of the plants in small clay pipes into which 
they placed one end of a long hollow reed the other end Of 
which was placed in the mouth, or as was often the case, 
the tube was forked at one end and then the forked ends 
were inserted into the nostrils, and thus was the smoke in- 
haled from the burning weed. On the discovery of other 
portions of America it was found that the plant was gener- 
ally used by the natives of both the Northern and Southern 
Continents and the islands of the sea, and the Gulf of 
Mexico. One writer speaks of its being used by the natives 
of Peru as a medicine, in the form of snuff. Tlie Aztecs 
of Mexico used pipes of a varnished wood, richly inlaid 
with gold and silver, and mingled with the intoxicating 
tobacco the liquid amber and various aromatic herbs. 



Tobacco Culture. 7 

" Saghagun," in his " History of New Spain," speaks of 
tliem as using the leaves rolled into cigars, which they 
ignited and smoked in tabes of tortoise shell or silver. 
" Eoraan Pane," a friar who accompanied Columbus noticed 
that the natives used the dried leaves, pulverized into a 
.snuff, as a purgative medicine, snuffing it up through hollow 
canes. 

Samples of it were taken to England b}' Sir Francis 
Drake, and the use of it was there made fashionable by Sir 
Walter Raleigh, and others, who had acquired a taste for 
it in Virginia, where it held an important place in all In- 
dian ceremonies. Among the Indian tribes of that and 
other sections of the continent the usual mode of use was 
by hollow canes and pipes made of wood, and decorated 
with copper and green stones. In order to deprive it of its 
acridity, some were wont to pass the smoke tlirough bulbs, 
filled with water in whicli aromatic and medicinal herbs had 
been infused. 

Thus it would seem that the forms in which it is now 
used by the inhabitants of civilized countries were known 
and practiced by all tiie ancient American races. Its use may 
be still further traced back to more remote periods of time, 
by pipes found in ancient mounds and monuments of races 
of people who inhabited the continent before the Indian 
tribes. These pipes, some of them most beautifully carved 
and elaborately ornamented with gold and silver, are found 
in exhuming Aztec graves and sepulchres. 

Some historians, however, claim for Tobacco a greater an- 
tiquity than tliat ascrilted to it in the discovery of America. 
It has been contended by some writers of eminence, that 
the Tobacco plant and its employment as a narcotic, are in- 
digenous, also, to some parts of Europe and Asia, "Lei- 
bant" thinks it was known in Europe many years before the 
discovery of America, and asserts that many plants had 
been found in the Ardennes; but "Maquenus" claims its 
origin as American, and attempts to allay Leibant's theory 



8 Tobacco Culture, 

by su2^gesting tlaat the seeds had been carried by winds 
from one continent to the other. "Pallas" says that among 
the Chinese and among the Mongol tribes, who had the most 
intercourse with them, the custom is so general with them 
of smoking, so frequent and has become so indispensable a 
luxury; the pipes, he says, affixed to their belts with a 
purse for tobacco, so indispensable an article of dress; the 
form of the pipes from which the Dutch seem to have taken 
the model of theirs, so original ; and then the preparation 
of the yellow leaves, which are merely rubbed to pieces, 
and then put into the pipe, so peculiar, that they could not 
possibly have derived this from America by way of Europe, 
especially as India, where the practice of smoking is not so 
general, intervenes between Persia and China. "Meyen" 
also states that, the consumption of Tobacco in the Chinese 
empire, is of immense extent, and the practice seems to be 
of great antiquitj-, for on very old sculptures I have noticed, 
the very same style of Tobacco pipes now in use. This 
writer, however, seems to have lost sight of the fact that the 
Chinese liave been opium smokers from a very remote pe- 
riod, and it may be that these pipes were used for that pur- 
})Ose, inasmuch as the pipes now in use by that most pecul- 
iar people, are ordinarily not unlike tliose used by them in 
smoking the Tobacco leaf, hence I take it that his argument 
possesses but little significance as against the trans- Atlan- 
tic theory. It is, however, very singular that, in a country 
BO impervious to foreign influence and customs as China, 
this habit should obtain to such an extent, for according to 
another writer "the practice is so uniform, that every female 
from the age of eight or nine, wears a small silken pocket 
to hold tobacco and a pipe." P>ut whether a native of the 
old world or of the new, the culture of Tobacco has spread 
and its consumption increased in every quarter of the globe, 
in a greater proportion than any other article of food or 
luxury. 

Among all nations — in every land and every clime, in all 



Tobacco Culture. 9 

classes is it to be found, in the gilded palaces of tlie King, 
the feultan or Emperor, to tlie lowly peasants lint, from the 
most refined to the in()-;t degraded and ignorant, lulling to 
ease the pampered millionaire, and solacing the lieart of 
the hungry gamin, tlie poor street waif, it perfumes the par- 
lors of Fifth Avenue and Rotten Row, and tloats upon the 
breeze at the break of day or ''dewy eve,"' as the hiborer 
wends his way to work or to liis home; and in spite of le- 
gal enactments, of papal bulls, regal counterblasts, imperial 
edicts, religious cru.-ades and teminine protests, it still flour- 
ishes ; every day adding to its consumption, every day iind- 
ing new adherents and friends, and adding almost daily 
some new district to its production. 

It has its o[)ponents, but it numbers its friends by hun- 
dreds of millions. Is it a poison ? — then is the poison as 
sweet as honey. Does it act injuriously upon the system 
and shorten life? — out upon such logic, ci-y the multitude, 
,and still putf on. Is it extravagant and wasteful, even to 
sinfulness? — "we will eat less bread," they cry, and still 
putt" on and on, and away goes the national debt, principal 
and interest, in tire and smoke. 



CHAPTER II. 

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND THERAPEUTIC ACTION. 

The great German Chemists Posselt and Reinmann have 
made the best and perhaps the most accurate chemical 
analysis of Tobacco known. I give it here in toto : 

Nicotine 0.060 

Concrete Volatile Oil 0.010 

Bitter Extractive 2.870 

Gum with Malate of liaie 1.740 

Chlorophyl 0.267 

Aibumeu and Gluten .•.,... 1.308 

2 



10 Tobacco Culture. 

Malic Acid 0.510 

Lignine and a trace of starch 4.969 

Sails (sulphate, nitrate and ma'ate of potash, chloride 
of potassium, phosphate aud maiate of lime and 

malate of ammonia) 0.734 

Silica , . . . . 0.08-! 

Water 88.2S0 

Total 100.830 

The active principle residing in the plant is ISTicotine or 
Nicotia and Nicotianine. The former was first separated 
from the plant in a pnre state hy Messrs. Henry and Bou- 
tron, that previously obtained by other chemists being an 
aqueus solution of the alkaline principle in connection with 
ammonia. The strongest Virginia and Kentucky tobaccos 
contain from ♦J to 7 per cent of it whilst some of the milder 
varieties used for cigars contain only about 2 per cent. 

Nicotianine is the concrete volatile oil of tobacco, or 
tobacco camphor, obtained by distillation of its leaves. 
Only about 11 grains can be obtained by distillation of six 
pounds of the leaves. It is of a fatty nature, having a smell 
like Tobacco smoke, and a bitter acrid taste. It is in- 
soluble in water and dilute acids, is volatilized by heat and 
alcohol, ether and solution of potash are its solvents. 

An empyreumatic oil may be obtained by distillation con- 
ducted at a temperature of 212° and this contains nicotia 
which is a most deadly poison. One drop of this poison 
placed upon the tongue of a dog will cause him to expire in 
convulsions in a very few minutes. It is this poison which 
often collects in old pipes and causes the sore mouth or sore 
tongue which is not uncommon among smokers. It is this 
active poisonous principle which when inhaled from a very 
old pipe, often causes faintness, giddiness and sometimes 
severe vertigo of smokers. It is simply tobacco poisoning 
and is due to nicotia or nicotine. 

This oil which cannot be distinguished from that of fox 
glove, has been detected in tobacco smoke together with 
nicotianine, nicotia, salts of ammonia and other volatile 



Tobacco Cii'turc. 11 

products. The asli of tobacco leaves consists of about 1-6 
to 1-5 of the entire weight and is chiefly- carbonates of lime 
and magnesia, chloride of potassium and sulphate of potash. 

The medicinal effects of toi)acco upon the system are 
very marked, whether taken internally or as an external 
application. If administered internally as a powder, in the 
shape of snuff, in small quantities, or taken as it is ordina- 
rily used, as chewing or smoking tobacco, it acts as a seda- 
tive narcotic, calming mental unrest and bodily excitement, 
and producing a state of languor or repose, most seductive 
and inviting to those accustomed to its use. Taken in 
larger quantities, or with those unaccustomed to its use, it 
acts as a poison, producing vertigo, or giddiness, nausea, 
vomiting and purging with great prostration. As the nausea 
continues with severe retching, the skin becomes cold and 
clammy, the muscles relaxed, the pulse feeble, and if the 
dose has been a large one, fainting, convulsions, and death 
may ensue. It has great power in causing relaxation of 
the muscular system, even it is thought to a greater degree 
than digitalis, and on this account is often taken advantage 
of in surgical treatment and operations. Dr. Fhysick used 
it in the case of a patient with a dislocated jaw. The man 
was unaccustomed to the use of tobacco, and Physick made 
liim smoke. He soon had his patient so deathly sick from 
its effects that the muscles of the affected part were entirely 
relaxed, and the dislocation was reduced with ease. It is 
also used in the form of infusions and cataplasms, to relieve 
various spasmodic conditions. The inhalation of tobacco 
smoke is much resorted to in asthma. It is also recom- 
mended in articular gout, rheumatism and neuralgia ; tooth- 
ache may often be relieved by smoking a cigar. 

In some varieties of cutaneous affections it has been re- 
sorted to with success. The application of an infusion of 
the leaves or the powder, as for instance a snufl' poultice, 
to surfaces deprived of their skin is not devoid of danger 
however, and great care should, be taken in its administrar- 



12 Tobacco Culture. 

tion. It has been followed by fatal effects when so admin- 
istered, even by inhalation of the smoke, death has been 
produced. The great nausea produced by this drug has 
suggested its use as an emetic, but its administration is not 
justifiable except perhaps in extreme cases, such as sudden 
poisoning, or where no other emetics are at hand. 

A great diversity of opinion exists among medical men 
as to whether the use of tobacco is beneficial or hurtful to 
the system. Even since its introduction into general use it 
has been condemned most earnestly by man}' eminent men 
for its supposed generally injurious qualities. Its use, 
nevertheless, has been constantly increasing throughout the 
whole Vv'orld, in every land and climate, hot, cold, or tem- 
perate, and millions feed upon it daily, suffering extremely 
if deprived of it for a time. Its distribution so generally 
among men of all classes and nationalities would seem to 
imply that the plant exercises some important influence 
upon the human system. It do6s not appear to afl'ect the 
duration of human life except when used to great excess. 



CHAPTER III. 

A TOBACCO CHAT — TO THE POOR MAN. 

Before entering upon the subject proper of this treatise — 
the cultivation and curnig of Tobacco — I will say a few 
words to those wdio for the first time contemplate engaging 
in the cultivation of this plant. In the first place do you 
own a piece of land, say one, two or three acres, more or 
less? If you do not, can you lease a tract of that number 
of acres at, say $15 or $20 per acre, such land as will here- 
after be shown containing the necessary elements for suc- 
cessfully growing the weed ? Are you a married man and 
have you several half-grown children, all of which are nee- 



Tobacco Culture. 18 

essary adjuncts to the work. Have you a horse, ])lough 
and cultivator, b^" cultivator I mean a single or double 
shovel plow. I am addressing myself now to the poor man, 
the cropper or tenant of very moderate means. Do you 
keep a cow ? With one or two horses and a cow, quite a 
large amount of good fertilizer can be produced from 
season to season. The soil required for cultivating tobacco 
is of no small importance as regards its selection, as I shall 
show more in detail in another chapter. If you own a nice 
dry and warm tract of sandy, loamy soil, rather rolling, not 
too flat and not so hill}' as to wash by excessive rains, either 
old land or that which has been recently cleared and 
worked for a season or two, you maj^ niake your first 
attempt at raising a crop of tol)acco. If you do not own 
such a piece of land it will pa}' you to rent a piece, and pay 
from $15 to $30, or in case of its being exceptionally fine 
land $50 per acre tor it as lessee. 

You will encounter ditticulties and will often meet with 
obstacles calculated to discourage, but a good crop will pay 
for all ot these and soon dissipate your troubles. You will 
meet with rains when there lias been too much ofit, liot sun 
when you want rain or cloudy weather on your young and ten- 
der plants. When you set out your plants it may be just at 
the beginning of a week or two of dry hot weather. Then like 
cabbage plants 3'ou will have to water, water, water^ and in 
spite of all, see numbers of your plants pine away and die. 
Yon will have to replant and re})lant again. You will find 
cut worms ravaging the young plants, and in the season for 
them the tobacco worm will come down on you like the frogs 
and locusts in the land of Egypt. You must fight them. Raise 
turkeys, turn them into your patch, they will aid you well 
and nobly. Here too, the half-grown children will be found 
to \)Q. of great service, with their willing feet, pliant backs 
and nimble fingers they skip along, bend down, examine, 
pick, kill and pass on to the next, and few of the destruct- 
ive and ugly creatures escape their acute optics. The 



14 Tobacco Culture. 

mother is attending to liome duties, the children are with 
you in the patch (hiilj. 

They look after the worms, you after the cultivating, 
hoeing, w^eeding, topping and suckering the plants. All 
this I will tell you fully in another chapter. Then as the 
time draws on you will soon begin to cut and house your 
crop. To do this you must have prepared for j'ourself a 
Tobacco knife, four or five hundred plastering lath and a 
few roofing lath. At each end of your field or patch make a 
email platform for piling on the green plants which you in- 
tend impaling on the lath. 

Have a long rail or two fastened to posts, about five feet 
from the ground, and just near enough to a fence so as to 
allow of your hanging up each lath when filled with plants. 

You will have to utilize all the spare room in the attic of 
your house, in your stable or the eaves of your barn, or 
under the roof of your wagon shed. All tliis prepare before 
hand, so that you have store room to hang your laths of To- 
bacco where it can cure. A II these seemingly trivial matters 
I mention here to the poor man, the beginner, so that when 
he has raised a crop he may not lose it by finding no place 
to house it. Look out for frost, your crop may be late and 
you be taking advantage of every possible day to give it 
laro-er growth. See to it that old '*Jack" does not catch 
you napping, for if he does, your whole crop may be ruined 
in a night. One energetic and industrious man, may handle 
successfully and well, two acres of tobacco. This, if of 
fine quality, may yield him from $250 to $400 per acre, if 
the weed be commanding a fair price in market. In the 
county of Lancaster, in the State of Pennsylvania, this is 
not by any means an uncommon yield, indeed I am informed 
that fio-ures much beyond these have been obtained from a 
single acre. 

Let the poor man try it. 



Tobacco Culture, 15 

CHAPTEE IV. 

TOBACCO — ITS VARIETIES. 

It is of American Toiiacco I mean to treat, hence I shall 
touch hnt lightly upon other and foreign kinda. Localities 
christen the difierent hrands of tobaccos and cigars, the 
plant, de facto, remaining much the same in both appear- 
ance, and its constituents differing in one place, because of 
a finer leaf texture, in another because of its large 
size and fine color, in another because of its fine aroma, 
and consequent superiority for smoking purposes, and still 
another section claims great superiority for its plant for 
chewing purposes. 

Perhaps the oldest and best known variety, from which 
has sprung most of our American varieties, is the Nico- 
TiANA Tabacum, Or Virginia tobacco, or Kentucky or Penn- 
sylvania tobacco, for it means one and the same thing, and 
was originally derived from one common seed. The beat 
tobacco for making cigars is grown in the western end of 
the Island of Cuba, and is known asthe " Vuelta Abajo," 
the plant most in vogue there beii^g the "Nicotium re- 
panda." That which is raised in a section of country lying 
eastward of the city of Havanna is called Vublta Arriba, 
and is rather of an inferior quality. The most noted or 
justly celebrated plantation, or Vega as it is termed, is situa- 
ted near the town of Santiago de Cuba and is called Yara. 
Thus we often hear of " Yara " cigars and " Yara " to])acco. 
Tlie Vuelta Abajo is divided into five classes : 1st. Calidad 
or Libra noted for its good color, flavor, elasticity, and per- 
fection of the leaves, rendering it exceedingly desirable for 
wrappers for cigars. 

No. 2. Ynjuriado principal or Firsts, which has less 
flavor and is usually of a lighter color; this also is suitable 
for wrappers. No. 3. Segundas or seconds, a shade 
poorer in every respect, but good for fillings and inferior 



16 Tobacco Culture. 

wrappers. Ko. 4. Terceiras or thirds, wbicli are g-ener- 
ally employed for fillings. No. 5. Quartas or fourths, 
which are also employed for fillings. 

The choicest tobacco is that grown on tlie banks of 
rivers which are periodically overflowed. 

They are called " Lo Rio," " Kio Hondo" and " Pinar 
del Rio," and the tobacco is distinguished from all others 
by a tine sand, which is found in the creases of tlie leaves. 
The island of Trinidad also produces a very superior arti- 
cle of like kiiul. In Mexico a large quantity is raised, but 
entirely for home consumption, its export being forbidden. 

The tobacco us^d for manufacturing the manilla cheroots 
is the produce of the island of Luzon, and is considered 
nearly equal to tliat raised in Cuba. 

" KADOE." 

A very superior tobacco is raised in the province of 
Kadoe, in the island of Java, where it is grown in a natur- 
ally rich soil, alternately with rice, and without manure. 

LATAKIA. 

In western Asia that grown at Latakia in Syria, and at 
Shiraz in Persia, are most highly esteemed and are the 
famed Oriental brands. 

"DUTCH." 

In the province of Gelderland in Holland, they produce 
from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 pounds per annum, the greater 
part of which is disposed of to the French government, 
the balance going to Cuba, and even coming to our own 
shores. It is considered a superior tobacco in some 
respects. 

" CUBAN CIGARS." 

Aa the best tobacco is grown in Cuba, so also the best 
cigars are made there. 



Tobacco Culture. 17 

Many attempts have been made in transplanting the seed 
of the Spanish tobacco to various parts of the world, but 
these experiments have met with hut inditiereut success. 
I myself planted tlie seed for several seasons and produced 
a leaf, lari^er than that of the native plant, and of very tine 
flavor and general good quality. In quantity, of yield 
per acre, it would not [u-oduce one-half the aniount as that 
produced from Connecticut or Virginia seed, and in order 
to preserve the quality it is necessary to renew the seed 
from Cni)a every year, as after (nie or two seasons it loses 
its orioinal odor and tlavor. 

Although ciofars are of very ancient oriii:in in the West 
Indies, they were not generally known in Europe until the 
nineteenth century. 

In fact, of all tlie old works up to the year 1800, on gas- 
tronomy and the pleasures of the table, I know of none 
which mentions this now almost indispensable luxury and 
adjunct of a good dinner. Cigars are now regarded as one 
of the " rites of hospitality " in good society, and he is a 
barbarian who fails to avail himself of the delights attend- 
ing " la fragrant." 

In Cuba for many years the manufacture of cigars-was a 
monopoly, confined to a favored few. Now, however, it is 
not so. One firm, the house of " Caubanas," has for long 
years stood at the head of the trade and have attached their 
nanif'S to a brand of cigars " Cabanas " wdiich have attained 
a just and world wide celebrity. 

Any connoisseur of the weed will readily detect the flavor 
of a " Cabanas," and as a brand they are deservedly 
popular. 

Tliey command high prices, in some cases as much as 
two hundred dollars per thousand in gold in Havanna, 
while the same quality made by other manufacturers would 
command but one hundred and fifty dollars per thousand 
in gold. 
3 



18 Tobacco Culture. 

AMERICAN HAVANNAS. 

Great skill has been attained in the American factories 
in raannfacturinoj cigars, so much so that it is ver}- hard to 
determine between the genuine and the spurious article, ex- 
cepting by trial, and even then in some cases, the nicest 
and most cultivated taste fails to detect the difference. 
Many persons engaged m the business import tobacco of 
fine quality from Cuba, employ the Connecticut or Pennsyl- 
vania wrapper, and produce a cigar equal in appearance to 
the very finest made in Cuba. 

GERMAN CIGARS. 

In Bremen and Hamburg, immense numbers of cigars 
are made from very inferior tobacco and shipped to every 
point of the habitable globe at very low prices. The city 
of Bremen, which was among the first to adopt this new 
branch of industry, has now become one of the first markets 
of the world, for the sale of cigars, over ten thousand persons 
being employed there in their manufacture, and the exports 
exceeding 500,000,000, worth over $3,000,000, and most vile 
and execrable they are, exceeding even "M'Dowell's Sto- 
gies," or the "Wheeling Cheroot." 

The consumption of cigars extends all over the globe and 
is increasing yearly at a wonderful ratio. According to a 
calculation made by the American Consul at Havanna and 
embodied in his report made to our Secretary of State, it is 
computed that in the Island of Cuba alone 1,460,000,000, or 
10 a day for each person are annually consumed by the in- 
habitants and residents. 

TOBACCO REVENUE OF FRANCE. 

In France the consumption of tobacco and cigars is one 
of the principal sources of revenue. 

As early as 1674, a monopoly of the trade was given to 
Jean Breton for six years, he paying to the government 



Tohacro Cidfure. 19 

700,000 francs. In 1720, tlie Indian Company paid for the 
priviles^e, 1,500,000 francs, and in 1771, the price was in- 
creased to 25,000,000 francs. In 1856, the revenue derived 
by the scovernment, which had then assumed the monopoly, 
Was 164,000,000 francs. Even on these enormous figures, 
since that time the increase has been so- great that, 
when France was called upon to pay her indemnity of 3, 
000,000,000 francs to the Prussians, the bankers, Rothschild's 
ottered to advance the money, if France would yield them 
the revenue on the weed. France did not accept. 

The revenue to our own government from this source is 
something stupendous to contemplate, and will be referred 
to in another chapter. 

OTHER VARIETIES. 

There are many other varieties, mostly foreign grown, 
some of which I will barely mention. We have the Tobaccos 
of Turkey, of many kinds, taking their names from districts 
in which they are produced. 

Egyptian and Syrian Tobaccos, African and Indian To- 
baccos, all lightly colored and fragrant, much resembling 
that produced in Turkey. It is mostly utilized and con- 
sumed by the Orientals themselves in their pipes or Chi- 
bouques, is mild and much inferior for general purposes, to 
that grown in the United States. Comparatively little is 
exported from those countries. China and Japan raise 
quite large quantities which also is consumed by their own 
people. In the ditlerent Kingdoms and Principalities of 
Europe but little tobacco is &9««TrnTCit7 The trade is with 
all a government monopoly, hence the inhabitants in some 
sections are prohibited raising it, because of interference 
with government revenues. Mexico and the Central and 
South American republics, do not cultivate the weed largely, 
except perhaps Brazil, and what they raise finds consumers 
at home. 



20 Tobacco Culture. 

The United States is par excellence the tobacco growing 
region for the world, and yet, with all its hundreds of mil- 
lions of pounds produced, and its millions of revenue, the 
area planted is most insignificant. 

The statistics for 1875, give but 559,049 acres of land, in 
all the States and Territories, planted in tobacco, or about 
forty townships, making about two ordinary sized counties, 
as the gross area of this country, supplying the world with 
the weed. How easy then it would seemingly be, with our 
great wealth of arable land, adapted to its cultivation, to over- 
stock the market, and render it, as a commodity, a non-pay- 
ing drug. 

This would seem so at first glance and yet, the cultiva- 
tion of the plant has ever been, and is yet, subject to so 
many vicissitudes that such a state of afi^liirs rarely happens 
and is not likely soon to ensue. 

In alluding to other viirieties of tobacco, I shall confine 
myself to that produced in the diff'erent States, f )r it is of 
these chiefly which I will treat — their culture and handling. 
Kentucky tobacco is known and celebrated like that of the 
old mother State, Virginia, wherever the w'eed is consumed. 
As a producer, Kentucky takes precedence of all, and in 
quality, for its particular uses, is surpassed by none. 

KENTUCKY— 1875— 130,000,000 POUNDS. 

Its varieties are almost as numerous, nominally, as its 
counties and townships, each claiming some superiority 
either by reason of excellence in cultivation, superior adapt- 
ability of soil to its growth, in chemical constituents, and 
climacteric influences, new, improved and superior modes 
of curing and handling, or the reputed high grades and 
commercial superiority of its raanutactured product. 

Thus in Christian, Trigg, Todd and Logan counties, a 
brand is grown and manufactured, known to the trade, as 
the "Clarksville" district, which is largely exported to Ger- 



Tobacco Culture. 21 

«iianv, Austria and the north of Europe, also to Mexico and 
the coast of Africa. Anotlier variety is the "White Barley" 
and is largely grown in Bracken, Fleming, Pendleton, 
Grant, Shelby, Trimble, Kenton and other counties. Another 
is the " Little Frederick," chiefly grown in Clinton county. 
Others are the "Pryor" and "Long Green" varieties, grown 
m Hart, Muhlenburg and Adair counties, chiefly a chewing 
grade. A celebrated leaf is grown in Logan county, which 
is a favorite with, and largely purchased for wrappers by 
French and English manufacturers. 

VIRGINIA— 1875— 57,000,000 pounds. 

This State, as a tobacco producer, was, until 1^60 the 
foremost in amount produced. During the war Kentucky 
went to the front and has since retained preeminence over 
all in her gross yield. To-day Virginia stands second as 
producer. 

The qualities of Iku- tobacco are so various as to achipt it 
to all purposes, chewing, cigars, smoking brands and snuff, 
but, her tobaccos are now chiefly celebrated for smoking 
or pipe purposes, and the various popular chewing brands. 
In this respect the two States, Kentucky and Virginia nearly 
resemble each other, and have each attained world wide 
celebrity for the excellence of their brands. 

The "Long Green" the ''Blue Pryor" and "Big Pryor" 
are varieties pojmhir and grown in most of her counties: 
Also the "Gooch" "Whit'e Stem" "Yellow Pryor" "Big 
Oronoko" and "Little Oronoko" varieties. 

MISSOURI— 1875— 40,000,000 pounds. 

A very large area was planted in this State in 1875, and 
the yield placed her for the time, third in production. The 
varieties are much the same as those of Kentucky, and her 
leaf stands well for both chewing and smoking purposes. 



22 Tobacco Culture. 

The mode of cultivation and curing is much the 3arae aj^ 
that practiced in Kentucky, which will be noted fully in the 
appropriate chapters, 

Tennessee— 187S, . , . 35,000,000 pounds. 

Maryland— 1875, . . . 22,000,000 pounds. 

Pennsylvania— 1875. . , - 16,000.000 pounds. 

North Carolina— 1875, . . 14,750,000 pounds, 

Ohio— 1875, .... 13,500,000 pounds. 

Indiana— 1875, . . . 12,750,000 pounds. 

Connecticut— 1875, - . . 9,900,000 pounds. 

Massaehuselts— 1875 . . - 8,500,000 pounds. 

Illinois— 1?:)75, .... 8,000,000 pounds. 

In these, the foremost producing States, T have given the 
yield of tobacco according to the last census, that of 1875. 
In some of them there has since been a very large increase 
both in acreage and yield : for instance the State of Penn- 
sylvania is set down for 1876 at about 3o,OoO,000 pounds, 
80,000,000 pounds of which was raised in Lancaster county, 

In the several States last enumerated, the varieties of 
tobacco are numerous and noted either as to excellence for 
chewing purposes, us wrappers, smoking, line cut or cigars. 
To the most important of them I will hereafter refer in detail. 

I shall do this particularly with reference to that grown 
in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia 
and Kentucky, because they are to day the leading produ- 
cers, and their several prochicts command most attention 
and liighest prices from buyers, both in this country and 
abroad. 



CHAPTER V. 

CLIMATE AND SOIL. 

All climates and soils are not adapted to the cultivation 
of tobacco. It cannot be grown in the short and frosty 
summers of the far north, nor are the blazing rays of a tropi- 



Tobacco Culture. 23 

cal snn conducive to its successful culture. A medium be- 
tween the two seems to meet all the requisites in producing 
an article of standard excellence. In the United States 
the section of country lying between forty-three degrees of 
latitude north and thirty-two degrees south. 

Within this area it is largely and mainly grown, with the 
Atlantic Ocean as a boundary on the east, and twenty de- 
grees of west longitude as its extreme western limit. Very 
little is cultivated outside of the limits mentioned, neither 
the extreme northern, southern or western States seemingly 
being favorable for its successful cultivation. In this con- 
nection I except the island of Cuba, which lies between 
twenty-three degrees north, and twenty-one degrees of 
south latitude. 

Both climate and soil have a wonderful intiuence in pro- 
ducing either a coarse, heavy, and low grade article, or one 
of tine and high standard of excellence in the market. 

Thus for example that grown on the soil of Cuba, with 
its added climacteric influences, which are well known to 
produce no small share of the good qualities which are 
possessed by tobacco grown in that country. 

Therefore when I say that all climates are not adapted to 
its successful culture, I mean largely, as a crop and an arti- 
cle of commerce. The weed is grown to some extent 
throughout a wide range of latitude, and most excellent 
varieties are produced in the equatorial regions. As an 
article of traffic, however, bearing heavily upon the trade, 
and tobacco revenue of the different countries of the 
world, Cuba is perhaps the most noted hot climate in which 
it is produced. Scientific men assert that the high flavor 
and delicate aroma of the Cuban plant is produced by the 
influences of its climate, the sun's warm rays by day, warm 
moonlight nights, the frequent and heavy dews and air at 
all times heavily ladened with the perfumes of spices, flow- 
ers and tropical fruits. 

Tobacco is a great absorbent, and it is not at all improba- 



24 Tobacco Culture. 

ble that, to a combination of these influences, we may 
ascribe much of the piquant and spicy aroma of the plant 
produced in the " Ever faithful Isle." 

SOIL. 

To be brief, the soil required should be deep, of a sandy 
or loamy natui-e, rich, mellow and w«rm. 

Virgin soil is better than old land. It should be of a 
rolling nature, and with an eastern or southern exposure if 
upon a hill. Lowlands, river bottom lands, will do well if 
not subjected to overflow. 

Land which produces heavy crops of clover, timothy and 
blue grass will, in general, if well conditioned, 3'ield fair 
returns in tobacco. I treat more fully and in detail upon 
this subject in the chapter on " preparation of the soil." 

In several districts or Parishes of Louisiana there is a 
combination of soil and climate which produces a most 
celebrated and high priced brand, I'crrique tobacco. The 
crop is small, the plant also small, and the leaf when cured 
very dark, and when manufactured into smoking tobacco it 
is black, strong and fragrant. This brand of tobacco, 
owing to the limited area of country, where the soil allows 
of its being grown successfully, commands the highest price 
of any grown in this country, the manufactured article 
commanding about four dollars per pound. It is not un- 
likely that there are other locations in the same state which 
will hereafter be found favorable to its production. 



CHAPTER VL 

SEED AND VARIETIES. 



A very important matter to be considered in the culture 
of tobacco is the selection of seed, both as regards quality 
and variety or kind. It must not be too old, but fresh, full 



Tobacco Culture. 25 

in the grain and well ripened, I have used seed two and 
three years ok] which yielded me as good results as that 
which was but one year old, but it had been fully matured 
before gathering, well kept and was clean, and bright. If 
seed be harvested imniaturely it will not germinate, and if 
it be kept from one season to another in a damp a(>artment 
it will absorb moisture, mould, and when planted prove 
worthless. 

Tobacco seed is exceedingly minute, so small indeed as 
to require a magnifying glass to examine a single grain. I 
have weighed seed at different times, and found it varied 
from 1000 to 12^0 to a grain avoirdupois weight, or at the 
rate of the enormous number of 7,680,000 to 9,800,480 
seed in one pound. Seed weighs more or less heavily 
according to its density, and densit}^ and consequent heav^y 
weight depends upon its being fully ripened and thoroughly 
cleaned. 

Much care and close inspection is required by the pur- 
chaser, particularly the new beginner, in selecting seed. 
An inexperienced person may easily be imposed upon. 
Ver}' much worthless seed isbouglit and sold. Very many 
})lanters meet with most vexatious failures on this account. 
I have often heard them say, " my seed did not come up," 
or " I have no plants, my seed failed." Sometimes the 
seed polls are caught while j'ct in the green state by a heavy 
frost and thus injured or utterly spoiled. Another has a 
lot of seed which has been kept where it was subjected to 
heat and moisture, and then again to another operation per- 
haps, freezing. It will surely prove inert. Purchase your 
seed from a reliable dealer, or from one who has long been 
engaged in planting, he will furnish you seed you may 
rely upon as being " up to the mark." 

VARIETIES. 

In the matter of variety much depends upon locality. 
One kind will thrive and give good results in a given local- 
4 



26 Tobacco Culture. 

ity, which if cultivated in aaother soil and different climate 
might prove either a failure or but indifferently successful. 
In the States of Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, 
Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, seed raised in either of these 
States, will soon adapt itself as a plant in each of the others, 
it will soon become acclimated and though changed some- 
what material 1}', will, ere long, make of itself a native. 
Thus, for instance in Pennsylvania, a large, heavy and in 
many instances a coarse plant is grown. Introduce Ilavanna 
seed, and for the first year or two you will [)roduee a small, 
delicate and highly flavored leaf, with marked Cuban quali- 
ties, which however, under the influences of Pennsylvania 
climate and soil, will soon deteriorate and become "Penn- 
sylvania Tobacco." Connecticut seed is favorably intro- 
duced from that State, and grown in each of the others, and 
vice versa, seed taken from plants grown in Virginia or 
Kentucky, and cultivated in Connecticut or any of the States 
aforementioned, will soon acclimate and partake of all the 
qualities of those districts. If, however, it is desirable to 
raise in one given locality a variety grown in another, be- 
cause of some peculiar and markedly good quality, then 
seed from that locality should be secured every year, so as 
not to allow of degeneration. If a favorite Virginia varie- 
ty be desirable in Connecticut or New York or Ohio, secure 
seed yearly from the "Old Dominion." If Pennsylvania 
wishes to grow Connecticut tobacco, send yearly lo that 
State for a supply of seed. In some localities Cuban tobacco 
has been and is grown with very fair success, for although 
the plant is small, and the j'ield not nearly so large, acre for 
acre, as that which is "to the manner born," yet the quality 
is so fine and the manufactured brands of cigars so excel- 
lent, that the price obtained for such leaf is correspondingly 
higher than the native, and fully remunerates the cultivator. 
This, however, can only be done by a 3^early supply of seed 
being obtained from the Island of Cuba, otherwise, the 
plant will lose its Cuban characteristics. 



Tobacco Culfnre. 27 

In some Southern localities, notal)!}- in the State of Geor- 
gia, Cuban tohai'co ak)nc is cultivated, and with very large 
pecuniary results!. The average yield is much below that 
obtained in the Middle States, per acre, from native va- 
rieties, being culy about six hundred pounds, but tliey 
readily receive from $G0 to $80 per one hundred pounds for 
the product. In general excellence it is considered as fall- 
ing not fur below that produced in the Island of Cuba. 

In this State I have experimented to some extent in the 
cultivation of that foreign variety, and in quality it has been 
a success. We, in this State, will however labor under this 
disadvantage for some time, and until tlie productio)i of the 
same will have become more general, to wit:, buyers will not 
discriminate in favor of the added " Cul)an " qualities to a 
sufficient extent as wiil re[tay us for the lack in quantity 
produced, by raising this smali plant, from yearly im{)()rtage 
of seed. This, in time, may be overcome, if any locality 
will persevere long enough to make known tlie excellence 
of its foreign production. 

There is a field open for any one, wlio possesses a good 
salubrious locality, with deep, rich and loamy lowlands, not 
Kubject to overflow, and who has energy, perseverance and 
capital sufficient to sustain himself, to make a success of 
this leaf hy l)ringing it into notice to the trade and the 
public as "Pennsylvania Ilavanna." 

I do not mean to say that an article can be produced in 
this or any other State equal, in tliose fragrant and grateful 
qualities, which characterize Cuban tobacco, but I do say 
that I have produced here a tobacco from Ilavanna seed, 
which, in its aroma, when smoked was easil\^ recognized as 
a foreign variety, and far exceeded that of any Pennsylva- 
nia plant which could be produced from a native seed. 



28 Tobacco Culture. 

CHAPTER VIL 

SEED PLANTS. 

We of the Eastern and Middle States produce two kinds 
of plants, those grown in " hot beds," under glass or white 
canvass, and those grown '• in the open air." 

I will first give the " hot bed " method which I have 
found to answer my purpose best. I make ready ray frames 
in the fall of the year, generally about the latter part of 
October. A hole is digged, in a southern, south-eastern or 
eastern exposure, twelve feet long, five feet wide and about 
twelve inches deep. On this, on the edges, I place a frame, 
supported at each corner by a strong stake driven into the 
ground. In the fall, before the ground freezes I secure 
two cart loads of leaf mould which I place along side of 
my frame, and cover up closely with straw and bundles of 
corn fodder, ready to be unearthed in February or March. 
When the proper time arrives, say about the last of Feb- 
ruary to the middle of March, when the sun has acquired 
good power, when the icel)reaks up and the ground becrins 
to thaw, then I begin my first Spring operations for to- 
bacco. This, in our latitude is ordinarily a month sooner 
than you v.'ould be enabled to seed in the open ground, 
unless it be an exceptionally early Spring. I then have the 
hole tilled to the top with a lively, half rotted stable ma- 
nure, that produced from the horse stable, a straw manure, 
hot and in an active stage of decomposition. I never use old 
or fully rotted manure, as it would not generate the heat 
necessary for the purpose required. This manure, is 
packed well into the hole by being firmly trod upon. 
Then I unhouse ray pile of leaf mould by removing straw 
and fodder. It is in fine condition, not having been 
frozen, or if so, only a few inches m depth. This is turned 
over and thoroughly pulverized. Then my frame, which 
is about the same size as the hole in length and breadth, 



Tobacco Culture. -^ 29 

and fifteen inches high nt the back and ten inches in front, 
giving a slope of five inches to the sun, being all ready is 
placed over the hole and secured on the stakes. I then 
mix with the leaf mould about one bushel of leached ashes, 
and two bushels of finely pulverized horse dropping?,. 
The soil being then prepared, is placed upon the manure 
inside the frame, to the depth of about eight inches, mod- 
erately pressed down, and evenly and smoothly raked over 
its entire extent. Then I take my seed, which I am most 
careful to assure myself is of first-rate quality, not more 
than a heaped teaspoonful, I then mix this seed intimately 
with a quart of ground plaster or dry leached* ashes, and 
sow it evenly over the surface of the bed, I never rake 
the bed but take a light, inch thick, pine board and use it to 
press the earth down lightly over the whole surface. Then 
my sowing is completed, and I [)lace on the frame four 
sashes containing window glass, each frame being three feet 
wide by al)out five feet long, sufficient to etiectually cover 
the frame, and made close enough to exclude cold and to 
retain all heat generated within. I then bank up the earth 
all around against the sides of the frame. If the sun lie 
bright and warm, in the course of four or five days I open 
the frame by lifting one of the sash, and I find it quite 
warm within and a gentle vapor arising. I run my baud 
down into the earth, and I find it has become quite warm, 
and in case the soil be a little dry I take a can or two of 
tepid water and sprinkle it all over. I then leave it, and in 
the course of eight or ten days I find the seed germinating 
nicely, coming up thick enough, all over the bed. From 
this time on, as often as the weather will allow of it I 
open the frame about noon of each day, for an hour or 
two, and give the young plants an airing. As the Spring 
progresses and the weatlier gets settled and warm, say 
along in April, I remove the windows in the morning and 
keep them off all day, and if the nights happen to be 
exceptionally warm I keep them ofi' altogether. In this 



BO Tohacco Cidfure. 

way I succeed in securing strong and vigorous plants to set 
out early in May. 

But I am asked, wherein consists the advantage of this 
process ? Simply this niy friend : I thus render myself 
independent of frosts in April or May, which might ensue, 
and often do, destroying all the plants which were being 
cultivated in the open air. Another thing, by securing 
early plants I can gain a month in setting out and can 
therefore cut matured tobacco early in August. Well, 
what then ? This : From the roots or stumps of the 
plants, which are cut early, spring vigorous and numerons 
shoots or sprouts which, if the fall be at all a late one and 
favorable weather, I can harvest a second crop of tobacco 
not nearly so line as the first one, but which will go well 
towards paying the expenses of the first crops. 

So much then for the hot bed plants. I will now give 
toy "open air process." 

OPEN AIR PLANTS. 

This is the best mode of raising plants in all districts 
where the climate will allow of working the ground and 
sowing the seed early in the month of April, or the latter 
part of March. It is less expensive, less trouble, and the 
plants are hardier and less apt to wilt and die, when trans- 
planted from their beds to permanent quarters. It has, 
however, the disadvantage which I before mentioned, first, 
danger of being frost killed, and also inability, very often, 
of maturing them soon enough, so as to allow of setting out 
in time to secure, after cutting, a good second crop from the 
same stalks. 

This is no small matter, for if an early start be secured 
and the crop cut about the first to the tenth of August, and 
the fall be a long and open one, you may secure an after 
yield, paying from fifty to seventy-five dollars per acre — or 
even more. I am thus plain in these details, because in 



' Tobacco Culture. 31 

« 

cultivating this plant it is well to observe every point which 
will add to siKtcess. I calculate mj second crop will at 
least pa}- for manuring and plowing the land. 

In preparing my seed bed I am always careful to select a 
warm and sheltered locality, looking to the south or east. 
Select, if 3'ou can, a piece of new ground, protected at tho 
north and west by a copse, piece of a woodland or a largo 
building oi' close board fence. 

Then rake all the dead leaves, old brush, corn stalks and 
old limbs of trees, into small heaps about twenty feet from 
each other and then set afire. When they are thoroughly 
consumed have the aslies raked cleverly over the surface 
which is intended for your seed bed. Tiieu have the ground 
well spaded to the depth of at least twelve inches. While 
it is being spaded work into the furrows a plentiful supply 
of well rotted horse manure. After spading the ground 
have every clod broken, all stone and stubble removed and 
rake it clean and smooth. Then top dress the surface with 
a com[)()st made up of horse droppings two parts, leached 
ashes two parts, and one part Peruvian guano or chicken 
manure. Tliis must be well raked and thoroughly incor- 
porated in the surface soil. When this is done the ground 
is in j-eadiness for the seed. The ground mast not be too 
wet neither too dry, when the seed is sown, but select a day 
when there is an appearance of approaching rain, or one or 
two days after a light rain. Do not sow the seed on a 
windy day, as the light grain will be blown and fall unevenly 
over the surface of the bed, but choose a mild and calm morn- 
ing. For every twenty-live j^ards of surface square, take 
one tablespoonful of seed and mix thoroughly in about one 
peck of ground plaster or finely sifted ashes. Then sow it 
broadcast over the bed, endeavoring to secure as even an 
application to the whole surface as possible. Secure from 
the slaughter yard al)outone bushel of hog hair and spread 
it evenly over the bed. This answers several purposes. It 
secures warmth and protection to the delicate young plants 



82 lobacco Culture. • 

and in addition seems to supply to them some chemical in- 
gredients which tend to promote their rapid growth. When 
this is done get a few bundles of small branches of pine or 
cedar and place them over the surface of tlie bed. These 
also furnish heat and protection and may be removed when 
the plants have grown to the size of a silver dollar. 

During the growth of the plants great attention must be 
given to weeds, taking them out as soon as large enough to 
be distinguished from the young plants and this must be 
done by hand. In a case of a drought, sprinkle the plants 
in the evening from a watering pot, giving them a thorough 
soaking. This will be all that will be found necessary to 
mature the plants for use when wanted to set out in the patch. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

.SOIL AND ITS TREATMENT. 



A diversity of opinion seems to exist amona: the growers 
of tobacco, as to the relative merits of level lands and roll- 
ing, of hill and bottom lands. I think the question nar- 
rows itself to this: In some localities and climates, high or 
rolling lands are best adapted to the varieties there raised, 
whilst in other districts, other kinds require and thrive 
best on level or low lands, always, in either case bearing in 
mind that the lands should not be so hilly as to wash off 
plants and nutritive substances, or so low as to he subject 
to overflow and thus drown the plants or render the ground 
so moist as to unfit it for working purposes. 

In some parts of Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina, 
the finest and best qualities of tobacco are raised on the 
sunny sides of gentle hills, and on what are termed foot- 
hills, whilst on the other hand, in Connecticut, Pennsylva- 
nia and Ohio, the heaviest crops and finest tobacco are raised 



' Tohacro Culture. 3S 

on level land and bottoms, alon<i' creeks or rivers, elevated 
just enono^li to render them secure from overflow, A little 
good judgment will suffice for any intelligent person in the 
matter of selecting a site to locate his patch. 

Another, and important matter not to be overlooked ia 
the quality of the soil. If you have not good land, natur- 
ally, you cannot produce a paying crop of tobacco. First, 
then, tlie soil must be good land, and naturally adapted for 
this crop, and in the second place, it must be rich, in good 
condition to produce. 

What I mean by natural adaptation is this, it must con- 
tain within itself the organic matter, chemically, which en- 
ters into the body of the plant, and wliicli is always vital to 
its successful growth. Tobacco is a plant which contains 
within itself very large percentages of the various mineral 
salts and other ingredients, which are absorbed from the earth 
and which the soil must hold largely, in order to prove good 
tobacco land. Of the salts it contains largely the follow- 
ing, Sulphate of Potash, Nitrate of Potasb and Malate of 
Potash, Chloride of Potassium, Phosphate and Malate of 
Lime, and Malate of Ammonia. It also contains a large 
quantity of Lignine or woody matter, a trace of starcli and 
some Silica. For tlie other ingredients in detail see my an- 
alysis, as made by the celebrated cliemists of Prussia — 
Reinmann and Posselt. Water enters very largely into its 
composition, it carrying nearly nine parts of water to one 
of solid matter, thus ten pounds of green tobacco when 
dried out w(^uld lose nearly niiie pounds of its weight, leav- 
ing but about f»ne pound of solid and dry material. In 
100,000 parts 88.220 are water. 

Water, then, as you will notice, enters largely into its 
composition, and this element exerts no small influence in 
its growth. It therefore must be taken into consideration 
in its cultivation. In case of great drought tobacco soon 
8ufl"er8 much at certain stages of its growth, and will wither, 
turn yellow and cure in the field ere it is ripe. This 
5 



34 Tobacco Culture. 

could be obviated by irrig-ation by all whose land is so situ- 
ated as to allow of this artificial mode of watering crops. 
It is well to have an eye to tiiis eruergency in locating your 
patch on h)wland, contiguous to a stream. By an artificial 
conduit, or water canal, you may so arrange as in such a 
time to turn water on your land, and save a valuable crop. 
Some growers known to me have large patches along their 
streams, and wlien needed irrigate their crops and often in 
the Spring and fall of the year turn the water on their 
lands in order to manure them, procuring thereby a most 
excellent fertilization at little or no expense. I am thus 
explicit in this matter because it is important, and there are 
many planters wlio have it in their power, wnth compara- 
tively little trouble and expense to establish this most ex- 
cellent auxiliary and important adjunct not only to cultiva- 
tion ot tobacco but agriculture in general. 

In a previous portion of this book I touched upon the 
quality of soil required, a friable and not too heavy soil, of a 
sandy or loamy nature. These requisites are generally met 
in limestone, slatestone and freestone districts, as they are 
generally known and termed locally and geologically. 
First-rate clover, timothy and blue grass producing lands 
will nearly always meet the requirements of tobacco land. 
If you can produce fine and heavy crops of them, you may 
be reasonably sure that your land will yield well if planted 
in tobacco, always provided the season be favorable, and 
your crop properly cultivated. I think I may here state, 
that in the middle States, and climates generally in which 
tobacco can be successfully cultivated, it is now a well estab- 
lished fact, on all land which will grow satisfactory crops 
of the cereals, tobacco will find a genial habitation and will 
prove remunerative to the planter. In all sections, where 
tobacco is now grown, clover seems to be a most favorite 
soiler. It seems, more than any other grass, to carry with 
it most abundantly all the chemical constituents required 
for tobacco. It is a ready, rich and cheap manure, and in 



Toliacco CaUure. 35 

combination with stable manure, in many tobacco growing 
regions, is displacing all other fertilizers, planters finding in 
it all the requisites for keeping the land in a condition of 
fertility necessary to produce the greatest possible yield. I 
speak now, of course, of those sections of country where 
clover is a common and a favorite crop^ where it is not, 
then dependence is to be had upon other grasses and stable 
manure with artificial fertilizers. 

In such districts the land soon becomes impoverished 
and rendered unfit for tobacco, if many successive crops be 
raised on the same ground. This is a subject which I shali 
show n^ore fully in another chapter, and which requires 
full attention from the cultivator of tliis plant. Unless hi.s 
land be ke[)t up in prime coiulition a very few successive 
tirops will render the soil unfitted for future crops. 

It is upon the sumo principle that successive and heavy 
crops of wheat or corn will exhaust and impoverish the 
soil unless rotated or kept well up by heavy applications of 
such manures as will restore to the soil its lost elements. 
Every farmer and planter knows this, and I will only say it 
is thus with successive yields of tobacco from the same 
land, only to a far greater extent is the impoverishment 
•carried. Tobacco will pay, tobacco wnll yield immense 
crops and bring wealth to the pockets of the producer but 
woe to the land, tJje impoverishment is correspondingly as 
great. 



CHAPTER IX. 

PREPARATION OF LAND AND SETTING PLANTS. 

Various methods of preparing the land and setting out 
young plants are practiced in different tobacco growing dish 
tricts. I will tirst give my own manner of cultivating the 
weed, and afterwards add those practiced in other sections 



86 Tobacco Culture. 

of tlie country. I get ray land in order by the first of 
May, have it well ploughed, and by well ploughed I mean 
deeply ploughed, cleanly ploughed, and ploughed when the 
ground is in the best possible order. If it be ground that 
wai^ in tobacco the previous year I have it well manured 
with stable manure, generally putting on twenty-five two 
horse loads of the same to the acre, and from seventy-five to 
one hundred bushels of leached ashes. I say if it was in 
tobacco the year previous because it is better to rotate the 
crop, if one season in tobacco, sow it in the fall in wheat 
and you will, without fertilizing, secure an exceptionally 
large yield of that cereal, the former crop not having re- 
quired or taken from the soil the elements which are needed 
in order to produce a good crop of wheat. If the ground 
which I intend for the plant is a clover sod, I plow it down 
and have it harrowed until well smoothed. All clods are 
broken and smoothed out, and the field made as nice as "a 
garden patch." 

On this patch, I w^ill mention, I put ai)out ten two horse 
loads of stable manure to the acre, but you may readily 
add ten more per acre, if you have it, with profit to your 
land, your crop and your purse, always bearing in mind 
your pocket. 

I then score out with shovel plow, drawing my furrows 
straight, and for large variety of tobacco, three and a-half 
feet apart, for small or Ilavanua seed leaf three feet between 
furrows will be right. Some planters prefer to score out 
each way, thus checker boarding the patch, and allowing of 
passing the cultivator each way during the season. It is 
also claimed that in this way water accumulates around 
each square, and forms a minute reservoir for each and 
every plant. I however have tried both plans and cannot 
say that I find any decided advantage in this last plan, 
hence I run my furrows but one way, three and a-half 
feet apart. A damp, rainy or misty day is always the best 
time to put out plants. When your ground is well in con- 



Tobacco Culture. 37 

dition if you have not the weather mentioned then you 
must vA-ait for a suitahle season. On such a day, your pUmta 
must he taken carefully from the hot hed or open ground, 
as the case may he, with as much earth clinging to their 
roots as possihle, liandling them tenderly and placing in 
shallow hoxes or haskets. Sprinkle a little water over 
them wuth watering pot, then cover them with some leavea 
or a light piece of muslin or newspaper. Now send them 
by boys out to the patch. Let one man go down the fur- 
row with a stick about twenty-eight inches in length, meas- 
uring and marking by a scratch on the surface of the soil 
each point wliere a plant is to be set. He can do this very 
rapidly, and theboys following him will drop a plant at each 
spot marked. They must not distribute too many plants 
on the ground, for if it be a warm day they will wither 
and suiter injury. Two men follow. With the fore-finger 
of the ri^ht hand tliev make a hole in the soil laro:e enough 
to admit the roots of the plant, placing them in carefully 
and straight, and then pressing the earth closely around 
the plant, covering it up as far only as it stood originally 
in tlie hot bed, and removing any broken or dead leaves 
adhering to it. See to it that the plants be set straight, 
otherwise they will grow warped and stunted. Do not set 
a broken or crushed plant, it will be labor wasted. Finish 
plantingyour patch all at one time if you can, so that there 
will be a uniforuiity in the maturing of the crop. In the 
course of two or three days, or as soon as the plants have 
been started, go over the entire field removing all dead, 
withered and sickly looking ones, replacing them with 
others from the seed bed. You will require to do this sev- 
eral times in the course of the first two or three weeks, as 
it not infrequently happens that quite a number fail to grow. 
You will find wilted, sickly and dead ones for some daj-s 
after setting, if the sun beat excessivelj-- upon them, and 
should a very heavy rain storm ensue, many will be covered 
up or altogether washed out. These you must replace. 



B8 Tobacco Culture. 

Another thins:: In the course of a week or two after plant- 
Hig, an enemy makes his appearance in the form of the cut 
worm. Go over your patch and to a greater or less extent 
you will find his evil traces, young plants cut off down near 
the ground. Dig for the invader at once, you will find him 
nicely hidden just below the surface along the stem of the 
plant. Destroy the little villain, replace with anew plant and 
continue your search. 

You will have to go over the same course more or less fre- 
quently, while the plants are small and tender, in proportion 
to the number of the destroyers and the damage which en- 
sues from their evil work. This trouble however lasts but 
for a few weeks. The plant will soon grow away from him. 



CHAPTER X, 

TOBACCO CULTIVATION. 



In a week or ten days after the plants have been set out, or 
as soon as they secure a good *' stand," that is a good " send 
off" "or start," have taken root and started growth in their 
new quarters, then I begin cultivating the soil. About this 
time grass and weeds will put in their appearance and re- 
quire close attention. I first send my cultivator through the 
patch, tw^ice through the same row, not too near the plants, 
but well off so as not to throw the soil over them. This 
being done my men go carefully along every row with their 
hoes, breaking clods, smoothing the soil where inequalities 
exist and stirring the soil between the plants, carefully dig- 
ging out all grass and weeds, and uncovering any plants 
that may have had soil thrown upon them. Where there 
is a small or sickly looking plant, place alongside of it an- 
another and a more vigorous one. Do not pull out thefir&t 



Tobacco Culture. 39 

one but allow botli to grow together for a time, and then 
remove the least vigorous of the two. 

My first cultivation I generally consider the most impor- 
tant, and hence exercise more than ordinary care. I keep 
the soil immediately under each plant and around it fine 
and loose, and draw a little fine, moist earth, well up around 
each stalk. Great care must be exercised in plowing and 
hoeing that the roots are not disturbed. Everything de- 
pends on your plants getting a good hearty "send-off," or 
in other words a good stand. When you secure this, when 
you look over your patch and see long straight lines of del- 
icate green, each plant standing up, vigorous and meaning 
to grow, then half the battle is won. The cultivator I pre- 
fer to the shovel plow, as it better reduces the soil, and as 
l)etore stated I pass once up and once down through the 
same row. Never neglect this first cultivation and atten- 
tion to your plants, for if you do your crop will be lost. A 
warm rain and hot sun will so stimulate weeds and ffrass 
that what at an early day could be easily eradicated, soon 
becomes a deep seated enemy to destroy which will surely 
also uproot, tear out, break down and ruin your young and 
tender plants. If you are careless and dilatory at this time 
you will sui-ely suffer b}' having a poor and perhaps a 
worthless crop. Failures, particularly in new growers, most 
often result from lack of attention at this critical infantile 
period of the crop. 

The first working of the crop is always better if done 
soon after a light rain, wheti the earth is soft and pliable, 
but do not allow a dry season to deter it, go into the patch 
anyhow, your plants must have an early plowing and hoe- 
ing, if grass and weeds are appearing. Early and frequent 
cultivation are beneficial for several reasons — First : expos- 
ing the soil to atmospheric action is good for the soil itself, 
and indirectly to the plant. Secondly: It breaks up the 
hardened and sun-baked surface soil, thus fav^oring the early 
rooting of the young plaiit. Thirdly : It destroys grass and 



40 Tobacco Culture. 

weeds which would otherwise soon crowd and smother the 
young plants. To sum up, then, always see that your plant© 
have a good, fair atart. 

You may cultivate between the rows as often as once a 
week, and keep at it until the tobacco becomes too large to 
allow of horse and plow passing up and down the furrows. 
As the leaves increase in size, you must see to it that they 
be not covered by the soil, those lowest down, which ia 
thrown towards them by the plow. 

In this connection, and having given ray own method of 
treating the plant, both in the seed bed and in the fiekl, I 
will present the various ways of cultivating tobacco, as pur- 
sued in different localities, in the production of all tlie kinds 
grown in this country. Whilst in general the mode of pro- 
cedure is common to all, yet, as will be seen, there are dif- 
ferences in a small way, all of interest to the grower, and 
tending to secure the greatest excellence to the crop, and 
the quality of the plant. 

In this I am aided by extracts from Mr. Charles W. Deck- 
erman's work, entitled the " The Farmer's Book," also some 
reports from Kentucky, Virginia, Connecticut, Pennsylva- 
nia, contained in the U. S. Agricultural Reports, and ma- 
terial obtained from private sources. 

For the material which I use, and which is cleverly pre- 
pared and highly valuable, I return my thanks to each and 
all of the authors. 

Mr. Deckerman says: Tobacco culture is for the time be- 
ing a paying crop, but it exhausts the soil more rapidly than 
anv other crop. Any methods of culture "that leaves this 
fact out of view are faulty, as they enrich the land owner 
at the expense of all the fertility of his land. And when 
tobacco land is once exhausted of its fertility by this crop 
no process can make it profitable to cultivate it again for 
any crop whatever. 

For proof of this look at the exhausted, and worn out, 
and abandoned lands of both Virginia and Maryland. 



Tobacco CuUure. 41 

III tills view of tlie case I do not agree with Mr, Decker- 
man ; I believe that any land, however badly used, may in 
time, if allowed to recuperate under nature's auspices, and 
then, by a ju<liciou.s application of lime and manure, and 
growing; clover and otlier grasses, be brought into a good 
condition for farmins; purjioses. I have seen lands that were 
thus worn out, and which were taken in hand In' good, 
{practical and scientific farmers, and they ai'e now producing 
good crops. So far as my s\'stem of cultivation, says Mr. 
Deckerman, is diticrent from others, it is because tliis idea 
is prominent, viz. : 

Any method of culture that steadily exhausts the land is 
faulty and ruinous. Tobacco will grow on almost any soi! 
and in any climate that will [irodui^e corn, but a warm, mel- 
low soil is its chosen home. The northern cultivator must 
secure warmth by selecting an alluvial, sand}' soil or a 
light warm loam, and increase it by abumlant manuring. 
The southerner may depend more for warmth upon his 
sunny climate and insists more upon depth and richness of 
soil. A heavy loam or a soft cla}' will do him good service. 
There are two exceptions to these rules, and they are rank 
H(/ils which produce a " strong tobacco " and exposures sub- 
ject to strong winds, where the plants will l)e broken and 
bruised. The prejiaration of the soil should be most thor- 
ough, as it not only increases the quantity but improves the 
quidity. 

We have seen two crops of tobacco grown on adjoining 
farms, sell, the one for eight and the other for twenty-two 
cents a pound, the difference being wholly in cultivation and 
handling. The one crop costs about fifty per cent, more 
to cultivate than the other, but it brought one hundred and 
seventy-five per cent. more. If the land has not been sub- 
soiled for the i)revious crop, plougli in the fall and sub-soil 
to the depth of at least fourteen inches, and the deeper the 
better. As early in the spring as the ground will do to 
plow, the manure should be plowed in. The oftener it is 



42 Tobacco Culture. 

plowed, harrowed, rolled, ])lowed, crushed and harrowed, 
the better condition it will be in for the growth of the 
plant. It is difficult to tell just wlien this working of the 
soil ceases to be profitable, but our experience is that six 
workings, (including plowing and subsoiling in the fall), is 
the least to be recommended. This onl}' provides for two 
plowings, one rolling, and one harrowing \n the spring. 
Manures are the life of this crop, and it is only by the 
most abundant manuring that the fertility of the soil can 
be maintained in tobacco. 

On newly cleared land, where the soil is filled with vege- 
table matter, and the brush has been burned on the land, 
three crops may be raised without manui'e, but no more 
tobacco sljould be raised on it for at least three years, and 
it should be liberally manured for the intervening crops. 

Well rotted biirn-yard manure, ashes and salt are the 
three specifics for tobacco. Lime it must have, either in 
the shape of ashes, gas lime or the super-phosphate of lime. 
Salt at the rate of from three to six bushels to the acre, 
furnishes the soda required by the plant. As for other 
manures the cultivator must use what he can get. Twenty 
loads per acre of compost, of nuu-k with solid and Tupiid 
manure, with twenty bushels of ashes and four of salt, is 
the plainest prescri[)tion we can make. Twelve loads (by 
loads we mean loads) of compost as above, with two hun- 
dred weight of guano, (salt and ashes added as before), is a 
good proportion. If the ashes are not at hand, two to three 
hundred weight of phosphate can take their place. Guano 
on all crops should be covered deeply, while super-phosphate 
should be left near the surface. Manui-e froiu the hog pen, 
where peat and muck have been supplied liberally, is a most 
excellent dressing. In fact any substance that will promote 
the growth of other crops, will benefit this. Green and 
strawy manure should never be applied directly to the crop, 
but first composted. No ashes, lime or other fertilizer 
should ever be sprinkled on the leaves of the plants. (In 



Tobacco O'Uare. 43 

my caution in this resiicct I mentioned tliat it would injure 
the leaA^es, it causes tlieni to spot, rot and break into iioles, 
thus damaging the leaf as a wrapiter for manufactuiing 
purposes.) 

Tiiis is ot" sufficient importance as to bear renieml)ering. 

SEED BED. 

Prepai'ing the seed l)ed shouhl be attended to as early in 
tlie season as the ground gets <\v\\ ([ insist upon having 
3'our seed bed, either as " hot bed " or " open air bed," at- 
tended to and nnide ready as ueai'ly as [tossible in tlie hite 
fab.) One tablespoonj'nl of seed, if eacli seed produce a 
phmt, wouUl suffice for one acre. ]>ut as a j)recaution 
against all accidents, sow three tablespoonfnls of seed for 
each acre to be s(!t in tol)acco. Each spoonful of seed 
shouhl have a sijuare rod of bind, so that a seed bed of 
three square rods is re(piired tor each acre in jilants. The 
most a[)proved method of treating tlie seed is as follows; 
Select a protected, sunny spot, the south side of a wood, if 
convenient, or a southern slope, if possible, near a lu'ook, 
for convenience in watering. Cut off all weecfs, grass, etc., 
close to tlu^ tui'f ; pile up dry, well seasoned wood, and burn 
the surface thorougldy; clear off the coals and spade in a 
quantity of manure al)ont four inclies deep, IJake in bone 
manure if handy. iStir up tlie seed in three times its bulk 
of plaster, and sow in u still, damp day, or water as sown. 
Kake the bed slightly (I prefer pressing it with a flat boai'd 
onl}'), and not to exceed half an inch in de[)th, then roll or 
trea<l down hard and even. Water the young plants con- 
stantly, if dry weather succeeds, always witli tepid water, 
and never wliile the hot sun is shining on them, which rule 
applies to the |)lant in all stages of its growth. Cover the 
bed with brush until the plants are well out of the ground. 
The time for sowing tobacco seed in the extreme south is 
from the first of Februar}- to the first of March. In the 
extreme north it is two months later. 



44 Tobacco Culture. 

TRANSPLANTING. 

Transplanting; should be done, if possible, when the 
g:round is damp, otherwise it will be necessary to water 
while transv)lanting. Three feet apart both ways is a safe 
rule in setting the plants, and the earth should be pressed 
firmly about the roots. Great attention is necessarj^ to the 
newly set plants. Some cover them during tlie heat of 
vnid-day, others water them morning and evening until they 
get establislied. Many will fail, and should be at once re- 
placed. If the ground is very dry, a little hole should be 
made for the plant and a pint of water turned in. (By se- 
lecting a damp day, or just after a rain you esca[)e this 
trouble. Never set out in dry weather if you can avoid 
it). As soon as it has disap[>eared, set the plant. In a 
week or ten days after setting cultivate and hoe. Repeat 
the operation as often as once in ten days, and keep the 
ground loose and clean until the crop is too large to be 
worked among. Soon after the plant is set, the cut worm 
makes his appearance, cutting oft' the stems of the young 
plants. Go through the field every morning, and where a 
plant has been cut oft" dig open the hill and destroy the 
worm. This is the only method we know of as being 
eft'ectual. 

MARYLAND CULTIVATION. 

Walter W. Bowie, Esq., of Prince George's county, Md., 
gives his method of cultivating : He says, the soil best 
adapted to the growth is a light friable one, or what is 
called a sandy loam. New land is far better than old. 
Theory and practice unite in sustaining the assertion that 
ashes are the best fertilizer for tobacco. Where thej'^ are 
not to be had and the laiid requires manure, a mixture of 
one-third saltpetre to two-thirds of gy[)sum, well mixed, 
may be applied at the rate of three hundred pounds per 
acre. The land intended for tobacco should be got in nice 
order by the latter part of May, and when the plants are 



Tobacco Culture. 45 

hi good order for setting out, sliould be scraped, wliich \a 
done by running parallel furrows, with a small one-borso 
plougb, two and a-balf or tliree feet apart, and tben ei-oss- 
iiig tbese again at rigbt angles, preserving tbe same dis- 
tance, wbich leaves tbe ground divided into squares of two 
and one-half or three feet. The hoes are then used to form 
the hills, by drawing tbe two front angles of the square 
into the bo'low, or middle, and smoothing them on tht; top, 
und jiatting dt)wn by one blow of the hoe. The furrows 
should be run shallow, for the hills should be low and well 
leveled off on the top, and if [lossible, there should l)0 a, 
slight de[)ression in the centre, so as to allow the water to 
collect near tlie plant. After the first rain after the land 
has been thus })re[tared, the plants should be removed from 
the seed beds and carefully planted in the hills. 

The snuiller or weaker hands, with baskets filled with 
plants, precede ihe })lantersand drop the plants on the hills. 
In drawing the plants from the beds, and in carrviuij them 
to the hills, great care should be taken not to crush or 
bruise them. When drawn they ought to be put in barrels or 
baskets, if removed in curts, so as not to have too many in 
a heap together. 

In three or four days the plants may be weeded out, that 
is, the hoes arc passed near the plants and the hard crust 
formed on the hills pulled away, and the edges of the bill 
pulled down into the furrows. This is easily done if per- 
formed soon after i)lanting, but if delayed and the ground 
gets grassy, it will become a troublesome operation. After 
weeding out, a teaspoonful of plaster or plaster and ashea 
mixed, should be [)ut on each plant. In a i\'W <lays, say a 
week, run a small plow twice through between the rows 
with the landside towards the plants. This is a delicate op- 
eration, and requires a steady horse and careful plough- 
man, for, without caution, tbe }>lants will be rooted up, 
covered over or killed by loosening and exposing the roots*, 
lu a week after, the tobacco cultivator or shovel may be 



46 Tobacco Odture. 

used. Eitlier implement is valuable at tliis srasife of tlie 
crop. Once between the rows is often enough for either 
shovel or cultivator to pass. The crop can be greatly in- 
creased by their use, by stirring the soil once in ten days, 
for four or live weeks, going each time across their former 
cultivations. 

Any grass growing near their roots may be yiulled by tlie 
hand or cut oti" by the hoe. As soon as the tobacco has be- 
come too large to be cultivated witliout injuring the leaves 
by the whifiie-tree, the boes should be passed through it, 
drawing a little earth to the plants where required and lev- 
elling the furrows made by the shovel or cultivator. Care 
should be taken to leave the land level, for level culture is 
generally the best. 

When the plants begin to blossom, select the best for 
seed. One hundred platits will supply abundant seed for 
a crop of 40,000 pounds, all the others should be topped 
before they blossom, indeed, as soon as the blossom is fairly 
formed. It should be topped down to the leaves that are 
six inches long, if early in the season, but if late, top still 
lower. If the season is favorable, in two or three weeks 
after a plant is tojtped it will be tit for cutting, yet it will 
not suffer by standing longer in tlie field. Ground leaves 
are those which are at the bottom of the stalk, are dry and 
brittle, and should be gathered early in the morning when 
they will not crumble. 

CONNECTICUT VALLEY CULTIVATION", 

Having given Mr. Deckerman's method of cultivation in 
general, and that ot Mr. Bowie, I will proceed to the de- 
scription of the plans pursued in some other localities, and 
will first give that of the Connecticut region. 

The soil is a warm sandy loam, manured with ten or 
twelve cords of stable manure, and two to five hundred 
pounds of guano per acre, harrowed in. The surface is 



Tohacco Culture. 



47 



rulffed up so as to bring tlie eartli and manure around the 
plant. Sometimes Ihe ground is lightly marked with the 
plow, and guano or super-phosphate of lime ])hieed in the 
hill. When the phints are set they are mulched with straw or 
!iav, to prevent tlieir withering. At the time of trans- 
[)lantin!;r, which occurs from the 5lh to the 25th of June, 
(earlier than that in the Mid<lh> and Soutliern States), the 
hmd is |ilowe<l and a light furrow is cut, sowed with tliree 
hun(h'ed pounds of guano or su[)er-p!iosphate, and covered 
with ridges, leaving the I'ovvs somewhat elevated. The Ha- 
vanna plants are set eighteen inches by three feet, the seed 
leaf two feet hy three. Tlie yield of the former, as I before 
stated, does not ecpial the latter, but in quality and the price 
obtained for it fully compensates for lack in (piantity. Horse 
manure for the field culture is obtained as far as possible, 
and suj({)lcmeiitcd with any a\'ailable and well decom- 
posed farm yard manures, and also with Peruvian or fish 
guano, super-i»hosi)hates, woo<l ashes, bone dust, tobacco 
stems and otlici' fertilizers. The ground is plowed and 
harrowed sufficiently to mix the fertilizers. The best cul- 
tivation is given ; the seed blossoms are broken off and 
worms looked alter with care. In the State of C'onncitticut 
is a district known as the Housatanic Valley, comprising 
Litchfield county, Fairfield county, part of 13erkshire and 
jiart of New Haven. It is a noted tobacco district. Low 
prices, it is said, reduced the acreage and consequent 
yield to a lower figure than for some years, and the product 
in 1874, was estimated atthree thousand five hundred cases, 
of whicli Litchfield county produced thi'ee thousand, or 
about one thousand acres. This district is an old tobacco 
region, and has had large experience with special or arti- 
ficial fertilizers, and the conclusion is now reached that 
they aid the growth of the plant, but at the same time in- 
jure its quality. At the present time most of the product 
is grown witli barn yard manure, yielding a product of bet- 
ter color and texture, and one that comes out of the sweat 



48 Tobacco Culture. 

bettor than that tnadc with such special fertilizers. This i? 
a }3oint that requires close investigation by planters and 
packers of the weed. In New Haven county, the main re- 
Rource for fertilizer, beyond the common use of barn yard 
manure, is a double retined poudrette. In Tolland countj', 
the liberal use of horse manure, say eight to ten cords with 
three hundred and lifty pounds of guano per acre, is 
deemed sufficient to keep up soil fertility without rotation. 

NEW YORK METHOD. 

The main reliance in Onondago county, New York, 
where the leaf is grown most considerably, is upon ch)ver 
sod and farm yard manure, though various kinds of com- 
mercial fertilizers have been used. In that district it is 
tliought necessary for the successful cultivation of three or 
four acres of toljacco, to expend on it all the manure accu- 
mulated on a one hundred acre farm. The manner of cul- 
tivation is about tlie same as that of C(Minecticut. 

VIRGINIA CULTURE OF THE PLANT. 

This is the pioneer tobacco State, and until a very recent 
date was the foremost in production, both in quantity and 
quality of every grade of the leaf. I shall therefore dwell 
at some length on the qualities and kinds cultivated, and the 
methods pursued generally in its culture. I will first give 
the views of Major Robert L. Ragland, of Halifax county, 
Virginia, as expressed by him in a pamphlet on "The culti- 
vation and curing of bright wrappers.^' Major Ragland sa3^s: 
Burn and sow in good time a sufficiency of plant land, in 
good warm situations for early plants. Use Gilham's To- 
bacco Fertilizer, when sowing the seed, 100 to 150 pounds 
to the 500 square yards, according to the fertility of the 
land burned. If necessary to force the plants along, use 
the same fertilizer, in smaller quantity, as a top dressing, 
observing to apply the feililizer when the plants are not 



Tobacco Culture. 49 

wet with dew or rain. To prevent depredations by tho 
%, use ground plaster, in wliich ras^s, saturated with kero- 
sene oil have been laid for some hours, and cover the phmts, 
if necessary, with the phister thus pre[>ared. 

" YELLOAV ORONOKO " AND " SILKY PRYOR '* 

are tlie kinds best adapted to coal curing, while grey soils 
(and the fresher the better) with dry porous subsoil, are best 
adapted to the growth aiul maturity of yellow tobacco. 
Five years' experience in the use of Gilliam's fertilizer has 
convinced tlie writer that it is tlie best aid in the production 
of ricli, silky, bright yellow tobacco. Lands capable of 
producing yellow tobacco need just such help as is furnished 
l)y this fertiliser, in liastening the growth and giving size, 
8ul>stance and early maturity to the plant. P'rom one hun- 
dred to three hundred pounds per acre may be ])rotitabIy 
used. Apply in the drill, except in new ground, where this 
mode is inapi»lical)le and broadcasting is tlie best. Plant irj 
hills instead of beds, as soon after the tenth of May as plants 
and season will admit. Commence cultivation as soon as 
the plants begin to spread over the hills, whether grassy of 
not, and continue to stir ihe land with ploughs and hoes 
till the tobacco begins to come in top, using short single- 
trees as ihe plants increase in size, to prevent breaking aiu] 
bruising. When the plants are too hii'ge to acbnit the plow, 
use onlj^ hoes tt) keep down the weeds. 

In a small pamphlet entitled " The Caltivation and Cur- 
ing of Sun Cured Fillers and Wrappers," Dr. J. A. Flippo 
ot Caroline county, Virginia, gives his experience, which I 
also present to ruy readers. Dr. Flippo says : Tiie kind of 
tobacco to which our section is more particularly adapted, 
is termed with us " Fine Manufacturing," and is cured with- 
out fire, that is in the sun or in well ventilated houses. It 
is chiefly sought hy manufacturers for making line brands 
of chewing tobacco. It is not so large and long as "Ship- 
7 



50 Tobacco Culture. 

ping," but of much finer texture and more strength of fibre, 
is usually of a bright, rich, golden brown color, and a soft, 
silky "feel " and appearance, and when properly prepared 
for market, has a peculiarly sweet odor and taste, which is 
much relished by the hivers of the weed. Many portion* 
of other counties in this line of eastern Virginia are, no 
doubt, well adapted to the production of this class of to- 
bacco; and I believe, from observ^ation, that lands not well 
adapted to it may, by certain modifications of cultivation 
and fertilizing, be made to produce an article very similar, 
if not identical, with that produced on lands best suited to 
its growth. Lugs, and the lighter leaves of this tobacco, 
also make a most pleasant and agreeable smoking variety. 
Indeed, with a little age and without preparation, I have 
found none on the market superior to it. The particular 
variety known here, and almost exclusively cultivated, is the 
Oronoko, said to have been brought from the region of the 
Roanoke. The land best adapted to the production of thi?> 
tobacco is gray, wnth a good proportion of fine sand in it 
anci^clay subsoil. I would always select sucli portions of a 
field as are level and not subject to water, but dry and 
solid, for tobacco lots, and cultivate no other, as this al- 
ways produces the yellowest, brightest, smoothest and most 
saleable tobacco. 

A timely supply of good plants is the surest means of 
getting a good " stand," and without a good " stand " a suc- 
cessful crop cannot be produced. A great deal depend? 
upon the selection of the location for the plant bed, and this 
can be most safely done by one acquainted with the char- 
acter of the surrounding land. It should be a moderately 
moist place, not too wet nor too dry, and as rich originally 
as you can get it. The old plan of burning with brush and 
wood is most reliable ; but since labor has become scarce, 
and concentrated fertilizers have come into use, many far- 
mers raise plants without manuring. The burnt beds, how- 
ever, stand "drawing" better, recover more rapidly after 



Tobacco Culture. 51 

*' drawing," imd furnish a nincli more certain succession of 
plants than the unhurnt. 

Unburnt beds will not succeed in low, moist places, on 
account of grass choking out the plants. Woodland, which 
has been covered with leaves, is best suited for unburnt 
beds. In dry seasons the unburnt bedsrequire more water- 
ing to keep them growing. With regard to watering plant 
beds, it is much better to water' them well once in four or 
tive days thnn to sprinkle them eveiy day. The eartli 
should be nnide wet for several inches deep. In dry seasons 
and situations, many beds niay be saved by one or two suf- 
ticieiit and early waterings; but if you wait too long they 
will often perish before the roots get sufficient hold in the 
earth, and l)efoi-e you know it. They should often be ex- 
amined b}' some careful, experienced persDU, and watered 
before they become bare. Careless and irregular seediuir 
is another cause of partial failure and late plants. The 
whole surface sljould be uniformly seeded. To this end one 
tablespoonful of seed to seventy-five square yards, which I 
consider the right quantity, should be well mixed with 
about half a bushel of sifted ashes. Then divide into four 
equal parts, and sow the bed with each part successively. 
This will insure uniform distril)ution. When the hind is 
not very rich, some concentrated fertilizer must be raked 
or lightly chopped in after the bod is well prepared, and be- 
fore seeding. When the plants get about tlie size of a ten 
cent piece they may be again dressed with a light fertilizer, 
before every rain, or if dry, watered after top dressing. 
Old tobacco and tobacco stalks, crushed finely, make an 
admirable toj) dressing, aiid may be applied without danger 
when the plants are very small. Many things liave been 
used to prevent the destruction of plants by fly, but I know 
of no absolutely sure remedy. The location of the bed in 
the woods I have found to be the surest means to secure 
exemption from the fly. 



62 Tobacco Culture. 

TRANSPLANTING AND CULTIVATION. 

It is tlie habit of the old tobacco planters in this section, 
to break up their land in tlie fall, or early winter, with the 
hope of getting rid of what is known here as the bore 
worm, a most destructive enemy t(^ the newly set tobacco 
plant. Some, also, wait until a green crop appears in the 
Spring, on the surface of tlie land, to accomplish the same 
result. Neither plan always succeeds. 

If the land is foul and it can be burned over before 
plowing, this will generally succeed in destroying them. 
When your plants are nearly ready, the laml must be plowed 
and harrowed until fine. Then lay it off with a one horse 
plow three feet iipart. It is now ready for the fertilizer. 
Stable manui-e has been long known as tlie best fertilizer 
for fine manufacturing, sun cured tobacco, but as it is im- 
possible to raise a sufficiency of this, tobacco planters have 
been obliged to substitute others for it. I have used for 
years with great success Gilliam's tobacco fertilizer, about 
four to five hundred pounds to tVie acre, put in with tlie 
hand, and as equally distributed as can be done. After 
gowing a while you can regulate so as to distribute ifc 
equiilly over the bed at the rate above mentioned. After 
a[)plying the fertilizer, you can proceed as soon as a few 
rows are done, to make the bed with a single plow on the 
furrow made before applying the guano. When the plow- 
ing is done on light land, the beds may be scraped down 
with an imp'ement for the purpose, extending across two 
rows, and the horse walking between them. These rows 
are then marked with a measuring stick about two feet 
apart, and the places for plantiiig chopped. Then the land 
is ready for planting with the first shower of rain that 
comes. In new ground and rough land tliis preparation 
cannot so readily be made, and requires a good deal more 
wcu'k with the hoe. The distance of planting fiiu^, sun- 
cured tobacco, in my judgment should be three feet by two. 



Tobacco Culture. 53 

After several years experieiu-e I am satisfied that a ii;reater 
number of pounds per aere, and a much more uniform 
crop, having a lari^^er proportion of leaf tobacco, can bo 
produced than by ])Iantin«; at a greater distance. 

The " stand '' of tobacco in siiglit seasons (le{)cnds much 
on the care and manner of setting the plant. The roots of 
tlie [ilant sliould be carefully pushed to the bottom of tho 
openintr made to receive them, and the earth well pressed to 
the roots without injuring tlic l»ud. Some hands leave a 
cavity below the roots, and bruise the bud, and then it is not 
apt to live uidcss a rain immediately follows the planting. 
If the crop can be set from the 20th of May to the 10th of 
June, and a '• stand " secured, it will be in good time, with 
ordinary seasons and cultivation, to '* come iti." Many tiood 
crops are, however, made on good laud and in good seasons, 
when planted as late as the 25th of June. The cultivation 
on well }u'ei)ai"ed, smooth land, is easy. As soon after 
{)lanti ug as ])Ossible, and before the grass gets of atiy size, 
I side with Watts' small mould board plow, as close as 1 
can without breaking uj) the earth around tlie plant. Thia 
raises uj) and dro})S the earth back in the same furrow, at 
the same time turning over enough to hill the grass. Then 
scrape out the small strip left and work with the hoe. In a 
few (hi^'s tlie plants will be largo enough to be plowed again, 
turning the small mould board to the tobacco. Another 
working with the hoe and another plowing generally com- 
j)letes the cultivation. Some planters work again with tlie 
hoe, especially it the tobacco is small. Late working, as a 
general thing should !)e avoided. It keeps it green lotiger, 
and it is more liable to be spattered with dirt, from hcavj 
rains soon after working. 

SlIIPl'lNG TOBACCO. 

William J. Powers, Esq., of Cumberland coutity, Virgin- 
ia, gives his method of cultivating and curing " Shipping 



54 Tobacco Culture. 

Tobacco," which I herevvitli give to tny readers, that which 
bears upon the cultivation of the plant. 

Mr. Powers says: Tobacco may be grown either on high 
land or bottom land, provided it is M'ell drained, and the 
surface soil consists of a deep mellow loam. Indeed I have 
found that creek bottoms, that are not often subject to 
overflow during the dry seasons, that so often prevail of 
late years, were much more remunerative when planted in 
tobacco than the hillsides. For the same reason, red land 
is not adapted to the tobacco crop, though a red clay sub- 
soil is at all times desirable, in order to maintain the fertility 
of the soil. When hillsides are to be cultivated in to!)ac('o, 
a southern slope is of course to be preferred. All tobacco 
lands should l)e free, if possible, from gravel and small 
stones, as they have a tendency to cause the leaf to blister 
before maturity. The rotation I observe is a clover or 
grass fallow in the fall, to be followed by tobacco, thei: 
wheat, then clover, then tobacco again ; but in order to ol)- 
viate the ravages of the wire worm, whieli is sometimes 
most troublesome on both clover and grass fallow, I have 
sometimes tried tobacco after tobacco with decided success, 
though this diminishes to some extent the area for the 
wheat crop. T have always found the time to break up land 
for tobacco, to i)e as early in tlie fall as possilile after gath- 
ering in the corn crop, as the frosts of winter are very ben- 
eficial to the soil and very destructive to the numberless 
worms and insects that are thus thrown u[> to the surface. 

MANURES. 

I usually haul out and broadcast uniformly over the land 
intended for tobacco, all the farm, pen and other coarse home 
made manures that I have been able to save during the sea- 
son, as early in the spring as possible, after the land get;* 
dry enough for the teams to enter without poaching, and 
thus turn these under with a moderately shallow plowing, 



Tobacco Culture. 55 

aiul harrow over until tlie soil is well pulverized. I have 
found the early application of all coarse manures to be the 
best, as i^iving them more tin»e to decompose and become 
incorporated with the soil. About the 1st of May I lay the 
rows ofJ*, 3^ feet apart, with a one horse turning plow. In 
the furrows thus made I apply from four liundred to six 
hundred jtounds of some standard fertilizer, (I find none su- 
perior to Gilliam's), tlien lap tho dirt on tliis with a two 
horse turiiins: idow, and chop and pat the lists thus thrown 
up every three feet with hoes, in order to make a place for 
the plant to be set. The planting season with us on the 
south side general U' commences about the 20tli of May, 
and continues till about the 20th of June, by which time 
with proper diligence, most planters can succeed in getting 
a good "stand," As soon as the young plants show signs 
of growth they sht)uld receive a light working, with the 
plow and hoe, to keep down the growth of weeds and grass, 
and this should be kept up at intervals until, the tobacco 
liaving well covered the land, it is no longer necessary. 

LANCASTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 

This county is acknowledged generally to 'oe the " Ban- 
ner" tobac-o district of the United States. No other equal 
area of land produces as many pounds per annum, of a stand- 
ard excellent quality, commanding the highest possible price« 
for native grades, of any grown in this country, and bring- 
ing a revenue to the producers larger than that of any to- 
bacco county in America. This tobacco as a commercial 
product, stands high and is much sought after, because of 
its uniform good qualities as a wrap[)er, being fine, large, 
and of a beautiful dark color, all quiilities much in demand 
for the production of a fine cigar. Another marked charac- 
teristic of the Lancaster county tobacco, as a crop, is the large 
amount whicVi is j-ielded per acre. Lancastrians are synony- 
mous with good farmers, and in this crop they seem to have 



66 7obacco Culture. 

"set" themselves to outstrip the world, and thus far they 
have done so, indeed. Each one seems to vie with his 
neighhor in a friendly competition as to which can produce 
the greatest yield per acre, which grow the largest leaf, 
wliich cure tlie most satisfactory crop andohtain the largest 
returns for his product. Many and great — yes, marvellous 
in the extreme, are some of the stories told relative to the 
yield per acre — so great as to lead one to suppose that Lan- 
caster acres must certainly he of somewhat more extended 
area than our arithmetics ordinaril^^ teach us. Be this as 
it may, however, there is a sufficienc}' of truth overlying 
all error as to render the snhject interesting and even won- 
derful to the general or old time grower of the weed. In 
agricultural interests generally the farmers of Lancaster 
come as near perfection in their skilful mani})uIation of the 
Boil as any community of the kind in this (iountry, expend- 
ing tlieir lahor in the most economical and intelligent man- 
ner possible, so as to insure lucrative returns. 

It is not then to be wondered at that, upon introducing 
tobacco as a product, they should bring t(^ l)ear uiion it» 
culture the same energy, intelligence and skill which char- 
acterized them in other pursuits and which soon placed them 
in the foremost rank as cultivators of tlie weed. 

It is on this account that I shall present in a rather ex- 
tended manner tlie various methods of cultivating and 
handling the weed as pursued by the liusbandmen of that 
fertile district. 

In the main, their methods are much the same as those I 
have given as my own practical experience, indeed we can 
all do well "an' we follow them." In all their work, 
whether it be the preparation of the soil, the working of 
the seed beds, transplanting the young plants, cultivating, 
cutting and curing it and shipping to market, all is done 
with a care and thoroughness from beginning to end which 
(Stamps them masters of the field and high artists of their 
laborious but lionorable calling. 



Tobacco Ciiliure. 67 

I have rend with pleasure and profit a small but inter- 
esting pamphlet written by Mr. C. F. Libhart, of that county, 
and as it is al)le and very well written, I purpose giving 
some extracts from his paper. Mr. L. first gives his plan 
for raising the plants, hence I will first introduce the 

SEED BED. 

Mr. Lil)hart says : In the [U'ciJaration of the phuit bed3 
and sowing of tlic seed great ciii-e is required, as a good 
crop of tol)acco dejiends greatly u|ion a good and abundant, 
supply of i)hmts. Select a situation free from the blasts of 
the nortli winds, and which receives during the day as much 
sunlight as possible. Then manure strongly with well rot- 
ted compost, hen inanui'c, ashes or other good fertilizer, and 
spade to the depth of about a foot. Then rake or other- 
wise pulverize the ground to as fine a condition as it is 
capable of When the bed has been so })repared, the seed 
sh(nild be sown in about the quantity of a teaspoonful to 
every one hundred. square feet, and in order to got it more 
evenly distributed, it may be mixed in dry wood ashes or 
sand. S[ii'outing the seed previously to its being sown is 
not a good plan, as tlie germ is so deliciate that it is apt to 
be injured by handling or drying up in the sun, besides 
being entangled in bunches and thus coming up vQxy irreg- 
ularly. After the seed has been distributed over the bed it 
should be rolled or beaten down with the back of a spade; 
this presses the earth around and against the seed, which 
enables it to germinate quickly, as, owing to its minute 
size, it is not able to do when lying loose and exposed to 
the air. 

In this latitude, forty degrees north, the time for sowing 
the seed varies from the fifteenth to the thirty-first of 
March, according to the season ; this renders the plants tit 
to set out about the latter end of May or first of June. 

They may be two or three weeks earlier by forcing un- 



58 Tobacco Cultare. 

der fflass, and in hio:h latitudes this will be necessary to in- 
sure a ripening of the crop before frost. 

Whenever the surface of the bed becomes dry, it must 
be watered with tepid water; this should be done in the 
morning or the evening. It is scarcely necessary to add 
that the bed mnst be kept clear of weeds ; tobacco ditiera 
from most weeds when nudsiiig its first appearance al)0V8 
ground, by its bright green color and by lying flat upon 
the soil. After the leaves of the plant have attained tho 
size of a quarter-dollar, they may be set out in the lield, 
but they will be all the better if (h)uble tlnit size, as they 
are then not as easily destroyed by the cut w^orm. The 
main ])oint, and that on which success mainly depends, in 
raising a good crop of toba':'co, is to have good plants 
enough to fill the patch at one i)lanting, so that tlie tobacco 
may be of a uniform size and ripeness when cut off". 

VARIETIES. 

Mr. Libhart thinks the best varieties adapted for Penn- 
sylvania are the Connecticut and Pennsylvania seed-Ieafa, 
Pennsylvania seeddeaf outstrips the Connecticut in size 
and weight, but owing to its taking longer to mature in 
this climate than the last named, is not so desirable. 

Mr. Libhart tliinks it a good plan to spread manures 
and i)low down several weeks betore the plants are put in, 
and he sets no limit to the quantity of manure per acre; 
" the more the merrier" for the crop which is to follow. 

When the ground has been well fertilized, plowed down, 
and furrowed off so as to be ready to receive the plants, 
tlien you may begin 

TRANSPLANTIiSia. 

His directions are : When the ridge has been thus pre- 
pared, one person goes ahead with a basket of phuits and 
drops one on each bunch, another person following and 



Tobacco Culture. 69 

pL'mtinijf them alnio^^ta^ rapidly ns they arc diatrihnted. hc- 
canse it is injurious to the j)huits to U-ave llieni exjiosed to 
the air for any considoriible lengtli of time. In inserting 
the plant a hole may i)0 made with a pointed stick, hut the 
most expeditious, as well as the hest way, is with the hands. 
The roots of the plants are carefully insertdh Jmd the 
earth pressed moderately tight njion them ; care must ho 
taken not to press tiie delicate lieartdeaves, for upon their 
preservation (U'pen(hs tlie future vigor of the plant. Tho 
best time for jdanting is duiing a warm, di-izziing lain ; hut 
if no sucli occasion presents itself when everything is 
ready, then immediately before or after a shower will do 
nearly as well. If it is necessary to [)lant without rain, it 
should l)e (h)iie in the evening or morning, and each plant 
watei'cd slightly. 

CULTIVATION. 

Mr. L. stroiigly advises cultivation as soon as the weeds 
and grass ap])ear, sending a cultivator V)etween tlie rows 
and exercising care that the soil be not tlirowii over tlio 
ycuing plants ; also that tlie j'idges be hoed down to a level 
with the plants, and all grass and weeds eradicated from 
around tlie plants. As soon as a new crop of weeds ap- 
pear then tlie cultivator and lioe must again be brought 
into use, and this course continued during the growth of 
the plant, until, from their size, it will lie injurious to tlie 
growing crop for man, horse and plow to pass between 
the rows. 

A few points I wisli to impress upon tlie amateur planter 
or beginner, before taking leave of tliis branch of my sub- 
ject, and thej' are these : First, always be particular to se- 
cure for your future crop the best variety of seed. Second, 
be sure that your seed h fresh and reliable seed. Third, select 
for your future crop of plants a warm and fertile seed bed. 
Fourth, in order to insure the best possible returns foryouF 



60 Tobacco Culture. 

labor, it is absolutely necessary tiiat you select for 3'our to- 
bacco crop, a warm and fertile patch. Fifth, see to it that 
your growing crop receives the full measure ol intelligent 
and thorough cuUication. 



CHAPTER XL 

TOBACCO WORM — MACROSILA (SPHINX) CAROLINA. 

This destructive enemy is known by the several nanies 
of "Tobacco worm," and tobacco " hawk-moth," or " horn 
blower." Its ravages are not confined to any one section of 
country or climate, but it invades the tobacco patch where- 
ever the weed is grown, and if not strenuously combated, 
will certainly ruin the cro}). Its ravages are also extended 
to tomato plants, whicli, however, are but comparatively 
little damaged by their incursions. 

It first appears as a moth, tobacco hawk-moth, and depos- 
its its larvjB or eggs on the leaves of the plants. In May 
and June, and sometimes July, this large nn)th may be seen 
during the early summer twilight, hovering over flowers 
and honeysuckle and Jamestown weed. It is often mistaken 
for a humming bird, which in its quick and bumming flight 
it much resembles, with its long and fle.xible tongue it sucks 
nectar from the flowers, and when at rest it folds its tongue 
up into a coil. This itisect is much like the northern so- 
called potato worm, and is often mistaken for it in all its 
stages of larvae, pupa and insect, and can scarcely be distin- 
guished from it by young entomologists. In rhe tobacco 
worm, however, the tail horn is (in the insect) reddish instead 
of bluish, as is the case with the potato worm in the insect 
stage. It also has no longitudinal wiiite stripe, the pectoral 
feet are ringed with black, the body is more hirsute, and 
the insect itself is more .indistinctly marked, aud always has 



Tobacco Culture. 61 

a wliite mark a1 the l)ase of its wing-s and partly oji tho 
thorax, which the moth of the potato worm has not. 

The jiotato woi-m is also found feeding oti the t()i)aceo in 
Maryland and I^Minsylvania, and frequently a hiaek, or 
nearly hiaek, variety of thi> worm is taken, especially towards 
the endoftlie season. Tlie jiotato or tomato worm has also 
heen aceused of heinii: poi.sonons, hut this is entirely erro- 
neous, as the liorn on tlie tail of the caterpillar is incapaldo 
of iniiicting any serious wound, and has no })oisonous [prop- 
erties whate\'er. Tlie [totato worm is the northern species, 
and in Mai-ylaud the two species meet, and are found indis- 
criminately together in the tohaeco iields, yet never mixing, 
hut remaining jx'rfeftly distint-t, although so nearly allied 
in ajtpearaiice, haliits and food. There are several parasites, 
and one in particular, that is very useful in destroying the 
potato and lohacco worm. Tt is a minute, four winged. fly, 
(microgaster congregata) which <leposits its eggs in the cat- 
erjiilhu' and evenlually kills it. The eggs of this parasite, 
to the nuirdjei- of one hundred or more, are deposited on 
the hack and sides of the caterpillar, in small punctures 
made hy tlie ovipositor of the fly. 

The laiva^, when hatched, feed upon the fatty substance, 
and when fully grown eat a hole in the skin, and each mag- 
got s[)ins for itscdf a small, wdiit(>, oval cocoon, one end of 
which is fastened to tho skin of the worm, and the cater- 
pillar appears as if covered with small, white eggs. Eigljty- 
four flies were (d)tained from one caterpillar hy Say, and 
Fitch counted one hundred and twenty-four cocoons on an- 
other worm, so that these insects must destroy a great num- 
her of worms. 

The parasite, iiowever, is said to he itself destroyed hj 
another hymenopterous insect, (Pteromalus tabacum), which 
deposits its eggs in the cocoons of the microgaster. An- 
other species, forming an immense mass of loose, woollj 
cocoons, is also said to kill the caterpillar of the potato 
sphinx, and most probably attacks also that of the tobacco 



62 Tobacco CuUure. 

worm in a similar mannei". It is, tlierofore, of oToat eon- 
sequence, when destroyinij the caterpillars hy liaud jjickino:, 
to avoid crnsliing or injuring any caterpillars wliich appear 
to have either wliite floss or egg-like cases on their 1)acks! 
or sides, as these ai-e the cocoons of a very useful iinect, 
which if left undisturtied, would produce multitudes of 
flies, which would destroy an immense numher of these 
injurious worms. 

This is an important item and will well l)ear rememher- 
\n>r^ — .uot to kill a worm with little, white, egg like suh- 
Btances all over his back. These are the cocoor.s which ii? 
time will turn into flies and help you destroy your enemies. 

The hornets and an orange-colored wasp, taken by Walsh 
for a Polides, devour the caterpillar when young and snnill. 
The best remedy, however, against these insects, is to 
poison the fly which produces either the potato or tomato 
worm by drojiping a mixture of " blue stone " of the drug- 
gists, or crude l)lack arsenic;, into the flower of the James- 
town weed, or Stramonium, in the evening, when the fly 
will come and insert its long proboscis into the flowers, sip 
up the poisonous mixture, and die before dcposititig its eggs. 

A correspondent finds it advantageous to cultivate a few 
plants of the Jamestown weed among his tobacco, and then 
to poison the blossoms as they appear, with the above men 
tioned liquid, every evening, and has thereby saved a great, 
part of his crop uninjured. In Maryland some grower* 
utilize young turkeys by driving them into the tobacco field, 
where they pick the worms from the leaves. Some plant- 
ers also pay a stnall premium to children for the dead mil- 
lers or flies, which are readily killed with a piece of shingle 
or board, as tliey hover over the flowers in the twilight of 
evening. 

The numl)er and consequent destruction of these pests 
depends much upon the season. I have noticed, if it be 
dry in the early summer — June and in May — you may count 
on not having many worms during the season, but if it be 



Tobacco Culture. 68 

very wet dnviiiij those months, then ulong in July and 
August you will have lots of them, and this, too, just in the 
season when the}' do most damage. There are, as I have 
before told ^'on, two ero[)s ot' worms, one in May or June, 
when the jdaiiis are young and small, these deposit their 
^'^iX,'^-, go vh)wn into the ground as ehrysalcs and emerge as 
catt.'r]villiir!s, hence begin tire war against them early. The 
more yon kill early when the plants are young, the fewer 
you will have in Julv and Auu'ust to cat big holes in vour 
!ai'ge and beau'lifnl and valuable leaves. 

]-vememl)er, the tirst crop makes the second, augmented 
or increased more than an " an hundred fold," hence your 
duty is plain. Ft is a fact that plantci-s are too apt to over- 
look or [);!y too little atteniion to this first worm crop. 
They are but the scouts or advani;e of tlie aianv to follow. 
Early work upon the tobacco will pay well, and the quest 
after worms is ntucli easier when the [)lants are small than 
when the leaves have attained great size. Worm your to- 
bacco, therefore, when it is young, and do it diligently and 
thoroughly, leaving no worms to propagate a liock or herd 
for July and August. Go y>)urself into the patch daily; 
early in the morning or in the evening, or at least two or 
three times a week, send your young hands through tho 
patch, or a good, careful adult Inind. Look for larvae — des- 
troy it. Look for worm dung — a black, seed-like substance. 
Where you find it l)e sure a l.irge worm is not far away. 
Turn up the leaves and hunt ("or him. Wherever you find 
leaves newly [lerforated, examine well that plant or the next 
ones; you will surely find the destroyei'. Sometimes tho 
worm nniy be found early in the morning at the root of tho 
etalk, just at tlie surface of the ground. 

Look for him well, on the top ot the leaves and under. 
There are signs, which you will snon discover, of his presence, 
which in time will unerringly lead you to him. Young boya 
and girls soon learn to iind him, and as they are active and 
nimble, they soon become effective w^orkers after the enemy. 



64 Tobacco Cvlhire.. 

Many planters raise large flix'ks of turkeys for tliis spe- 
cial purpose, and they are most excellent aids in riddina; tlie 
tobacco patch of the pest, Init some contend that they de- 
stroy many ot the largest and linest leaves in their searclt 
after tlie worms. They may be easily trained to the work. 
For a few days drive them into the patch every morning 
and they will very soon go there reorularly of their own ac- 
cord. Ciiickens, too, often seek tlie patch and seem to en- 
joy hunting after both worms and larvae. 

To surn up, however, in whatever way you deem best to 
combat this enemy of your crop, let your battle be waged 
in earnest, and never let up until you have conquered him, 
for if you do, you will find your crop will not otdy suffer 
severely, but if the worms be out in force you may lose all 
the results of your labor; every leaf being reduced to a 
Beive (^r a mass of ribbons, and only worth so much a pound 
as lugs, and very poor ones at that. 

The recommendation in the beginning of this chapter, 
relative to the Jamestown weed (iStramonium) is good. 
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cui-e." Culti- 
vate some of these plants along your fences or through 
vour patch. The i)ig inoth-millei-s will congregate about 
them in quest of food. Poison tlie blossoms. You will soon 
find plenty of big horn-blowers lying dead in tiie vicinity of 
these plants, and every one of these put out of the way is 
as good as having killed a hundred worms. 



CHAPTER XII. 



SUCKERING AND TOPPING. 



Suckering is by no means an unimportant matter to be 
looked after, as upon its being well done depends, to a great 
extent, the size and weiglit of the valuable leaves. Suckers 
are small leaves or sprouts which shoot out from the stock 



Tobacco Culture. 65 

just above and at the junction of every leaf with the parent 
stem. These shoots are not alone valueless, they are an ab- 
solute injury to the balance of the plant, a^ thej' gvow rap- 
idly and if allowed to remain they draw to themselves nu- 
triment from the plant wliich ou^ht to ir<> to the commercMal 
leaves. They also tend to crowd the valuable leaves. Tliey 
must he taken otf. To do tliis g-o over your patcli when 
they are about an inch or two in len<.';th. Do not u-»e a 
knife but pinch them out with your thumb and fore-finii;er. 
Go over the ground as often as once or twice in a week. 
You will alwiiys find more or less of them springing out, 
and if the season be wet they will grow very rapidly. By 
pinching oat tlie suckers and to[)iiing low you will secure 
large, fine and heavy leaves as the balance resulting on the 
stalk. In pinching off these suckers, commence at the top 
of the ]»lant and go down to the lowermost leaves, being 
very careful to break none of the large leaves, as they are 
quite brittle and break easily under careless handling. Any 
leaves which you may turn over in your efforts, or which 
may have blown over l)y the wind, ^-ou must turn l)ack again 
to their proper [tosition. The sun shining upon the under 
side of the leaf will burn it in a few hours and injure both 
tiie texture and the color of the leaf. 

TOPPING. 

At the top of the plant a plume comes up which is called 
the seed bud. It generally comes into view in the middle 
States about the last of Jul}' or first of August. As soon 
as it is fairly out from the parent stem, so that you can lay 
hold of it, pinch it out — do not cut it off, as in that case it 
may bleed — the stalk will waste some of its substance. 
Pinch it out with thumb and fore-finger. The proper time 
for topping depends upon several circumstances. First, 
Locality and Climate. Second, Variety of Tobacco Grown. 
Third, Quality of the Soil and Forwardness of the Crop, 
9 



66 Tobacco Culture. 

These points must all be determined by the grower him- 
self. He will take into consideration, if he desires to grow 
large and fine leaves, or leaves of an average size and 
weight. If he intends growing twenty leaves to the stalk, 
then he must top so as to leave that number on the stalk, 
but if he wishes to grow but twelve or fourteen leaves then 
he must top low enough down so as to secure this result. 
Time of topping, as I have before said, depends first upon 
climate and locality, that is the grower may be in a locality 
where his crop will mature rapidly and come to seed bud 
early, say in July, first part, instead of August. In this 
case he must top when the seed buds appear and are of suf- 
ficient size. 

VARIETY or TOBACCO GROWN. 

By this I mean the grower must top early or late, high 
or low, as the kind of tobacco demands which he is endeav- 
oring to produce. For instance, is it tobacco for chewing 
or pipe smoking purposes, then he must top accordingly, 
taking off not the seed bud alone, but such of the upper 
leaves as will allow of the proper number below fully 
ripening. If the tobacco be for cigar purposes, then in that 
case top, and leaves enough with it, must come away to allow 
of the proper number on the plant which are intended to 
be forced to their utmost. 

QUALITY OF SOIL AND FORWARDNESS OF THE CROP. 

When, where and how often to top depends much upon 
the soil and vigor which the growing crop displays. I have 
said that from twelve to twenty leaves may be desirable on 
a stalk, but the soil may not be sufliciently rich nor the crop 
far enough advanced to allow of maturing even the mini- 
mum number of leaves. You cannot top all at once. You 
must go through your patch two or three times a week, or 



Tohacco Culture. 67 

daily if the crop be working rapidly ahead, and top all 
plants which are ready for beheading. They do not nearly 
all come to seed bud atone time. Another thing which in 
this connection, right here, is of paramount importance, 
and that is the necessity of securing your 

SEED PLANTS 

for the next year's su[>ply of seed. This, in your topping 
operations, you must not overlook. Go over your [)atch 
and select a sufficient number of large, vigorous and sym- 
metrical plants, which you must allow to stand untopped, 
that their seed buds may ri{)en for your future supply of 
seed. The number of phmts which you will let stand 
must depend upon how much ground you may wish to 
plant in tobacco the following year. 

Always select the largest and most fully matured plants 
for seed. 

Two stalks will generally be found ample for the seed 
necessary for an acre of ground, if well ripened, and much 
of that will be to s[)are. It is safe, however, to allow two 
stalks of your finest, most fully matured, brightest, heav- 
iest, and largest leaved plants to remain untopped for next 
year's seed. If the plant runs up very high, put a stake 
along side and tie it, so that in case of a heavj' storm it be 
not blown over and broken. Do this to all those intended 
for seed, which have shot up to any considerable height, 
for if they be blown down and broken before the seed is 
ripe, it will be worthless. 

Generally, after topping, your plants will be ready to cut 
in from two to three weeks, but this depends much upon 
the weather, and if the fall be early or late. If the 
fall be open, and no appearance of frost, and your crop 
growing vigorously, you may allow it to stand for a longer 
period of time, but these points I shall reserve for another 
chapter, merely adding, in concluding this branch of my 



68 Tobacco Culture. 

eubject, that very much good judgment is to be exercised 
in the matter of topping, so as to secure a uniform and full 
ripening of all the leaves on each stalk. Cut so as to iu- 
Kure this result as nearly as you can. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CUTTING AND HOUSING. 



This is a very important point in tlie progress of tobacco 
as a crop, from the seed to the barn or dry house. Much 
good tobacco is ruined and lost at this stage, from lack of 
judgment as to its proper majiagement and handling. To- 
bacco must be cut when fully ripe, and the point is to deter- 
mine just when it is ripe. When the leaves begin to as- 
sume a mottled and yellow appearance, with reddish or 
brown spots, when they feel thick and sticky to the touch, 
and break easily when bent, then the tobacco is ripe and may 
be cut. In passing over your patch you may find that "here 
and there " plants have matured and are ripe, but the major- 
ity are not. Then, in this case, cut only the ripe plants and 
house them for the time. Another thing, you may- find 
Rome plants which have leaves, both ripe and immature ones. 
Cut the lower ripe ones and allow the others to remain on tho 
stalk. This only ai>plies to the small farmer, he who has 
but a small patch, and can take the tmie to cut and string 
such leaves as may ripen thus early. The lower leaves or- 
dinarily ripen before the upper ones, hence they are the first 
which will demand cutting and housing. These indi- 
vidual leaves, when cut, must be strung with a needle on 
pieces of twine, and then carefully hung in the dry house. 
They require much care when thus handled, as they are 
very brittle and break quite easily. Cut no more leavea 
than you can string and properly put away in the dry house 



Tobacco Culture. 60 

the same day, as tliey spoil if allowed to lie iti the field. 
When the tohaeco has heen well topped, and topped low 
down, not too many leaves having been left on the stock, if 
the ground he in very fertile condition, the up[)er leaves 
should attain to or nearly the size of the lower ones, when 
the cro[> is ripe and readj' to be cut. 

FIELD SCAFFOLD. 

It is requisite that every tobacco planter should erect a 
field scaffold on which to hang his tobacco as soon as cut. 

Several methods of cutting and housing tobacco are 
pursued. Some planters, in order to insure a rapid drying 
out of their cro{ts, always split th(! plant from top to base of 
r^talk. This is done by taking an even and taftering-edged 
chisel and starting it at the top of the stalk, just wher^ the 
seed bud had l)een cut oft", and forcing it down to within a 
few inches of the ground. This must be done carefully, so 
as not to cut away the leaves. Then the stalk is cut oft' down 
close to the ground with a knife or tobacco chisel, and the 
plant hung astride a lath on the field platform, where it may 
be allowed to wilt until evening, when it is to be taken to 
the dry luuise, as its curing quarters. Some planters, if the 
weather be exceptionally fine, allow tlieir tobacco to remain 
for days, and even weeks, on the field scaftbld, and think that 
the partial cnritig there secured is a decided advantage to it. 
This may or may not be so ; at all events I can see no impro- 
priety in allowing your crop to remain on the field scaftbld- 
ing as long as the weather is fine, but be sure you get it 
housed if a storm comes on or a long continued rain. This 
will surely injure your tobacco to a great extent, hence it ia 
well, if your crop be a fine one, and the weather favorable, 
that you secure it in permanent winter quarters during the 
bright and dry weather. If your dry house be a good and 
well ventilated one, you may feel confidently assured of 
your crop curing as well, or nearly as well, as though it had 



70 Tobacco Culture. 

been hanging for weeks in the open air, subject to the ac- 
tion of the sun's heat. 

And now to the subject of the field scaffold. This is eas- 
ily arranged. The extent of your scaffolding depends upon 
the amount of land you have out in tobacco. You may, if 
you choose, utilize for one side of your scaffolding a good 
post and rail fence if it be convenient to your patch. 
Say you desire scaffolding one hundred feet in length, you 
will therefore have. to use just that number of feet of post 
and rail fence. Make a trestle for every ten feet in length, 
and set them far enough from the fence to allow of your 
lath reaching from trestle to the fourth or fifth rail of the 
fence. If your lath or poles are five feet long, then your 
trestle, with the plank or pole laid from one to the other, 
running parallel with the fence, must be set about four and 
a half feet from the fence. In case you split your tobacco, 
you will hang it over your lath. If the lath be tive feet 
long, you may put seven or eiglit stalks on each lath with- 
out crowding. Then place one end of your lath on the 
fence rail and the other end of it on the plunk or pole which 
runs along the trestles, from one to the other. You will 
place the lath about twelve inches apart, and so till up your 
scaffold. In cutting and scafiblding tobacco, as, indeed, 
in most any branch of industry, it is well to study the 
economy of labor. By a little systematizing in cutting and 
housing, much time and labor may be saved. Cut two rows 
as 3'ou go along the furrow and lay tliem together. A 
heavy knife, a chisel or a cleaver, such as is used for cutting 
corn, are very effective in cutting tobacco. Seize the plant 
gently but firmly with the left hand, bend it over and down- 
wards, and then by one effective blow with the cleaver you 
sever the stock at the surface of the ground. In performing 
the operation, simple as it a[»pear8, you must exercise care 
or you will do much damage. A green, careless hand will 
do more damage, by breaking and tearing fine leaves, in a 
day than his wages would amount to five times over. An ex- 



Tobacco Culture. 71 

pert liand will go through the patcli and drop row after row 
without doing any apprceiahlc damage, hence at such a 
time it is always cheapi'st to secure the very best labor that 
can be had, and pay well for it. It is the large and finest 
leaves that are most frequently broken and torn, and tliey 
are commercially the most valuable. 

There is another mode of securing tobacco to poles or lath, 
and that is, nailing each plant to a lath, by driving a small nail 
through the body of the stalk, at its lower end. In this 
procedure you may put about the same number of plants to 
each five foot lath as you would do in the split and strad- 
dling process. None of them, liowever, to my mind, pos- 
sess the advantages that appertain to the knife and lath op- 
eration. 

LATH KNIFE. 

This is a spear shaped weapon or instrument. Its point 
is a gradual taper like a spear. The other end is cut oft' 
square. It is from five to seven inches in length, is made 
of highly tempered steel, and at the square end is hollow 
— a square hollow — made just large enough to admit of 
the end of a jtlastering lath fitting evenly and nicely 
into it. 

The following is my mode of procedure : I have a small 
platform made which one man keeps constantly filled with 
tobacco plants. Along side of the platform is a pile of 
ordinary idustering lath four and a-half feet in length. I 
take a lath, run one end of it into the tobacco knife, and 
.stick the other end into a crevice under the platform, which 
holds it firmly. I then take a plant and press the point of 
the knife through the stalk a few inches from its lower end. 
I then slide the plant back to the other end of the lath and 
then quickly take another plant, and more rapidly than I 
explain this, the point, is run through the stalk, and the 
plant slipped back to w-ithin about eiglit inches of the 



72 Tobacco CnUare. 

other one. I proceed in this operaticwi until the lath if 
iilled, containiiiii^ from five to eight plants, according to their 
size. If unusually large I may lath but five or six on each 
strip, but if small I [»nt on al)ont ei^ht, which gives an)ple 
room. When each lath is filled, or two are ready, an assis- 
tant takes one in each hand and carries it to the field scaf- 
fold. By the time he lias placed them on the scaffold and 
returns, I have two others in readiness for liim to carry to 
the same destination. In this way one man or boy keeps 
me supplied with plants, which I in turn so manipulate aK 
to keep njy assistant all the time " on the go " scaftblding 
the lathed plants. 

Some planters prefer to cut their tobac^co in the afternoon 
and allow it to lie and wilt over night. I (-an see nothing 
to be gained by this method. It is true, if the sun be 
very hot and you cut down your whole crop, and allow it to 
lie all day in the field, exposed to the sun's scorching rays, 
you will have qovcxq of it sun-scorched, but if you follow my 
plan and cut no more than you can work up dnrintjthe day, 
allowing each row or two to remain on the ground for but 
two or three hours, it will be well wilted but not burnt. 
Of all the methods pra(;ticed for cutting and housing, 1 
think that I can narrow it down to that which T have just 
narrated, to wit : 

Cut when the crop is ripe. Let one man cut two rows at 
a time as he goes along. Let liim use a small hatchet or 
corn cleaver. Then get you agood tobacco knife and throw 
aside the old method of splitting the plant and hanging it 
astride the lath or of tieing or nailing it to lath, and pursue 
the method as I have laid it down. In my experience it 
possesses the merits of beinw less tedious, less expensive, 
less laborious and saves much valuable time. With the 
lath knife one man will string as much tobacco in a day a» 
two men can do by the system of nailing it to the lath or 
poles on which it is to be hung. 



TobaccQ Culture. 73 

CHAPTER XIV. 

DRY HOUSE OR TOBACCO BARN. 

In anticipation of the harvesting and storing away of liis 
crop, the careful and thrifty hushandman will have secured 
and in readiness ample and safe quarters in which to store 
tlie fruits of his summer's labor. It is not an uncommon 
thing for farmers in Pennsylvania to build large and com- 
modious barns and outbuildings for his crops and to stable 
and shelter his stock, many years before they (consult their 
own ease and the comfort and convenience of their house- 
holds. They sutler inconveniences and [)Ositive discom- 
forts for years, by reason of their ci'amped and poorly venti- 
lated dwellings, in order that they may rear im[)osing, and 
comfortable, and commodious barns. 

Many of the large barns in tobacco districts of Pennsyl- 
vaniii, with their contiguous sheds and outbuildings, have 
of late years been utilized for tobacco as drying houses, in 
which they hang their tobacco to cure during the winter. 
Some till their wagon siieds, some the eaves of tlieir barns, 
and for a lonii; time, in Lancaster county, every conceivable 
nook and corner of sheds, barns, stable and house were 
utilized as space in which to store their yearly increasing 
stock of " the weed." In time, however, they began to 
build sheds and houses, and burns, specially adapted for 
curing a crop of tobacco. At tirst, the sheds were crude, 
simple affairs, but of late years they have been so con- 
wtructed as to be greatly improved upon. Some of them 
are of immense size, and capable of holding many thou- 
sands of dollars worth of tobacco. They are also built 
now with a view to the sorting and stripping, and general 
handling of tobacco, and also to the comfort of the workmen 
who handle the plants during the winter and early spring. 

To one who jjurposes engTigingin the planting of tobacco, 
it behooves him to first see to it that he has quarters ample 
enough to store his crop when liarvested. 
10 



74 Tobacco Culture. 

Tobaccos of tlie variou-? kinds, for pipe, chewing and 
cigar purposes, are cured in (]itfV>rent ways, Iience they re- 
quire ditierent quarters to perfect tliem lor sale. Thus 
there is first smi eared tobaeeo. This is y tohacco used for 
chewing [)urposes, and the hright sun cured wrapper is a to- 
bacco cured by being exposed to the rays of the sun, in the 
open air, which gives it a brilliant golden yellow color, and 
makes it. greatly in demand as a wrapper for tine plug to- 
bacco. I will ox[)lain this process in full under the head of 
" Curing Tol)acco," the chaitters devoted to that branch of 
the subject will be very full, sufiice it to say that this brand 
of tobacco is cured either in the sun or open barns exposed 
to the bright and heated atmosphere. Another variety is 
air cared tobacco', and stiH another/ire cared tobacco. These 
two, then, always require buildings in which to house them, 
and put them through the process of curing. I will in this 
connection merely confine myself to tlie manner of build- 
ings required, and will first give you my |)lan for an air 
curing barn or slied, one to which the [tiants are to be 
carted from their platforms or scattolds in the fields. 

The size of your barn will of course depend upon what 
is the extent of your tobacco crop. We now speak, of 
course, of a house for air cui'ing, and will take one witii 
capacity of storing about five or six acres of tobacco. First, 
then, location. Do not l)uild your barn in a damp or wet 
place, or where it will be sheltered on one or more sides by 
woods or other barns, or buildings, but select if you can a 
warm, sunny, southern slope or exposure, where it will re- 
ceive the morning sun, and when its doors and windows 
are thrown open, will secure to its contents a ful' and free 
ventilation or circulation of air. This is an all important 
consideration, because tobacco is made up largely of water, 
which you wish to ev.iporate or drive oft" ra[>idly, and to do 
this you must liave a free ventihition. When you have se- 
lected a situation suitable for the purpose, we will proceed 
to erect the necessary barn, and will suppose it to be two 



Tobacco Culture. 



75 



stories Viiicli, (limcMisions liberal, say fifty feet long, thirty 
feet wide, and iibout thirty feet from touridation to roof. 
The lower story will he a hasenieiit, and with good walla 
from the ground to the floor above, thus giving you a large 
walled eellar room or basement. In one corner of this 
room you may have a t'himney and a stove, vvhieh will make 
the room comtortable in the cold wintry weatiier when you 
are engagc^d in stri}>i>ing and packing your crop. Let the 
floor above be a good liiiht one, made of plowed and grooved 
boards. In the roof have two good ventilators, which at 
liberty you can ()|»en and close as you may wish. On the 
floor above, tin' sides of the building must be niade of six- 
teen I'eet long boai'ds, fnlly twelve incin'S in width. Let 
them l)e jtut on running up and down, from floor to roof, 
and not running horizontal or lengthwise with tlie house. 
Every third i)oard should be hung on good strong hinges, 
6o as to allow of being opened and shut at will. Some 
growers hang every other l)oai'd on hinges vvhicli may bo 
done or not, at your option, altliough I think every third 
board as a window will secure full and free ventilation for 
all purposes. Yon xwny have at each end of this barn 
double doors, large enough to drive in and througli with a 
two-horse wau'on. 

Tn one corner of the upper room you may liave a com- 
municating stall way and door with the basement below. 
To the side of the room, and near the middle of the build- 
ing you may have a hatcliwa\', down which to drop the 
tobacco into the ba-ement wdien the season arrives for 
stripping. The arrangement of this upper room will be 
entirely with a view to securing every available foot of 
sjiace to be utdized for storing tobacco to undergo the 
"air cure." To do this you must first determine what 
sized lath you intend using to string your tobacco upon. 
Let it be a lath four feet long. Now commence way up iu 
the roof, at the top or comb. Run strong and durable roof- 
ing lath from side to side, just far enough apart to allow of 



76 Tobacco Culture. 

placing a lath between two of them, with one end of the 
plastering lath on one roofing lath, and the other end of 
the plastering lath on another rooting lath, and so on until 
jou have tilled out the space above. Then come on down, 
arranging your platforms or scaffolding strongly and durably, 
and wasting as little space as possible. Then from the 
floor ascending to the ceiling there must be two rows of 
posts, which will allow of space between them suflicient to 
allow a team to pass from one door to the other through 
the middle of the building. Then scaffold above and on 
each side with good sized poles or sawed plank, strong 
enough to hold the weight that will be put upon them, 
always bearing in mind that green tobacco is by no means 
a light material, but on the contrary is very heavy and 
will require strong timbers. In arranging your cross 
bars ot\ the scaffold do so with an eye to the four or four 
and a-half foot lath which you intend using. You will 
arrange in this space about four tiers, one above the 
other. The centre space you can always utilize by having 
portable staging or scaffolding, which you may put up 
after the room above has been tilled, and the sides 
also, when there will no longer be a necessity for driving 
the team through the building. The last tier should hang 
down just far enough so as not to reach the floor, and the 
tiers above should not encroach one upon the other. You 
may arrange each one so as to be about four feet from 
the other. This will allow of the plants hanging so that 
one tier will not encroach upon the other, and likewise 
allow of a free sweep of air through the whole mass. You 
must arrange several long board walks on each tier so as to 
allow of 3^our passing along and hanging the lath in their 
places, and you must also have some kind of a ladder or 
elevator by which you can go up and down, and carry the 
loads of lath, weighted with their burdens of green to- 
bacco. This you will have to accomplish as best you can 
by the power of your own ingenuity. 



Tobacco Culture. 77 

III fair weatlier your board windows must always bo 
kept o[)eii, ai)d in stonnv and rainy weather they, the- 
doors ami all ventihitors must be chased so as to exclude 
the wind, rain, and danqt atmosphere. 

FROM FIELD TO BARN. 

When your barn is ready you may begin housing your 
crop. To do this a wagon is necessary, and a wagon for 
that special purpose adapted. Take an ordinary strong two 
or four horse wagon and couple it long, take otF the box or 
bed and lay strong boards about twelve feet long on the 
running gear. Make a little railing at the sides about 
twelve inches high, then drive to your scaffold in the 
patch, take your lath from the scaffold, and lay them on 
the wagon bed, the lath towards the wheels, and the planta 
laid nicely and evenly upon the wagon bed. Arrange a 
row of lath on each side, and build up just as you would do it 
loading bundles of corn fodder, the butts pointing out and 
tops and blades in the centre. Keep on building until you 
have a layer about two and one-half feet in heiglit, then 
drive to the barn. Always keep your own eyes upon this 
process of loading and unloading, for just at this time will 
you sustain much and severe damage by careless and inex- 
perienced handlers, breaking, bruising and twisting the 
leaves, if you are not on hand to insure care and attention. 
When your tobacco is being hung in the l)arn. see to it that 
the lath are placed regularly in distance one from another, 
not too far apart, or that will waste good space, and not too 
near, a^ that will cause the tobacco to mould and rot. Lath 
may at first be [ilaced about nine inches a{)art, whi(!h as the 
tobacco dries may be decreased, you may move them closer 
and thus make room for any late tobacco you may have, or 
a possible second crop. I have housed this year, it being 
an exceptionally fine fall, a late crop and a second crop, 
eacdi of which is equal to my first crop. My second crop 
will this year pay the expense of the first. 



78 Tobacco CiiUure,. 

PIKE CURE BARN OR COAL CURE SUED. 

Fire cured tobaccos are nearly all for cbewitig and pipe 
smoking, snutf and cigarette purposes. These ordinarily 
require bright brands of tobacco, and this color is generally 
most surely secured by hot curing, either by the rays of a 
hot sun or artificial means. The latter is most generally 
resorted to. I will first describe the 

COAL CURB SHED. 

Major Kobert L. Kagland, of Ilalifiix county, Virginia, 
gives his description of a fire or coal-cure sbed, in a little 
pamiiblet on the curing of fine yellow tobacco. He says: 
mind, do not be in a iiurry to cut your tobacco before it is 
fully ripe, and enougli of it fully and uniformly ripe to fill 
a barn. (He calls a building twenty feet square a barn). 
Cut the tobacco of uniform size, color and quality, putting 
about seven medium-sized plants to a four-and-a-half foot 
stick. Let the plants go from the cutter's hands into the 
haads of a holder, who will serve two cutters. When the 
stick is filled it should go directly, vvitiiout touching the 
ground, on a wagon, to be carried, when loaded (not too 
heavily) to the barn. It will take from seven Imndred to 
eight bund red sticks of tol)acco to fill a barn twenty feet 
square, witb five rooms, and four firing tiers below joists, 
placing the sticks about ten inches apart, the proper distance 
for medium tobacco. As soon as the barn is properly filled, 
and the tobacco regulated on sticks and tiers, fires of coal 
or hickory wood sliould be built in the barn, four fires in a 
row under eacb room, thus giving twenty fires to a barn 
twenty feet square. If hick<jry wood be used, let it be sap- 
ling wood, cut about two feet long, and green or partially 
dry. Next to coal, hickory furnishes the best yellowing 
heat. (A barn twenty-four feet square will hold about two 
and one-half acres of tobacco.) 



Tobacco Culture. 79 

FIRE CURE BARN. 

T*)e it rernomberofl that fire cured tobacco a})plios not to 
the leaf intended for ci<]:;ars, hut only as represented on a 
preceding page, to cliewing and ].i])e tobaccos. My })lan 
for a fire cure barn I will now p'ace before my readers. It 
is simple, sure and has tliis merit, it is com|;»ai'atively inex- 
pensive, as there is no costly niacliinery connected there- 
witli, there is no patent upon it, nor have [ ever applied for 
fMie ; and yet all who may give it a fair trial will find that 
it answei's every purpose. The principle involved in curing 
chewing tobacco is simply this: how to drive off the water 
quickly from the tobac^'o, and secure and hold to it a l)ril- 
liant gobk^i yellow color. This tnust be done by lieat. I 
do it as follows : 

Build your barn twenty-four fV^et square, with a lower 
room or basement. Build it willi good lumber and very 
close, so that there be neither knot boles, cracks jior cran- 
'iiies in it. I^et the roof be made as close as possible, and 
every (Mcvit-e closed u]). Have a cliimney built up at one 
end of the barn with two flues in it. Secure a large coal 
stove, of the E^^r pattern, or an ordimiry furnace for tlie 
cellar or basement, and [)lace it there. Stand this stove 
next to the chimney with a pipe leading into one of the 
flues to carry off the smoke and gas. Then at the other 
end of the buihling cut a register in the floor leailing up into 
the room wbii-h is hanging full of tobacco, from floor to 
ceiling. On that floor cut a register, down at the floor, 
into the othei- chimney flue. The heated air coming np 
through the register in the floor, from the furnace or stove 
below, will rapidly ascend to the ceiling or roof and dissem- 
inate itself all over the top [)art of the tobacco room. An 
the heated air keei»s rushing up and through the register in 
the floor, the cold air is rusliing out of the register into tho 
chimney flue. More hot air keeps coming in and spreading 
itself through the tobacco, gradually but surely forcing tho 



80 Tobacco Culture. 

cold air in a regular solid body down to the floor and into 
the chimney flue, until at last you t^ee what takes place, the 
cold air has all been forced out, displaced by the heated air 
which now fills the building and surrounds every plant of 
tobacco. Well what next? Why this : the room beitig filled 
with heated air, and more coming, it begins to pass into the 
flue, and so you have established a current of hot air, which 
tills the house and is passing out and up the chimney, every 
particle of it being more or less heavily charged with mois- 
ture obtained from or absorbed from the heavy, water laden 
tobacco plants. 

This process goes on and on until your tobacco is cured, 
being of a beautiful, bright golden color, such as is held 
in great esteem tor u'rappers of fine tobacco for chewing 
purposes. 

This apparatus or hot air barn will appeal at once to the 
scientific and practical man alike, both from the correct 
principles involved and its simplicity, from its being per 
fectly safe, at least as safe as a stove in your liouse, aiid be- 
cause of its inexpensiveness. It also saves much tnnible, 
many fires and much vexation and loss. Keep a thermom- 
eter in the room, and you can regulate the amount of heat 
required to a nicety, and cure your tobacco in a week's 
time, which is a great matter, when one has large crops, 
Wiien one l)arn full is cured you may take out that which 
has been cured, and fill again with green material. 

Tliis hot air room, while it is specially adapted to the 
curing of chewing and })ipe tobacco, is not by any meauH 
inapplicable for the treatment of cigar leaf. If the heat 
be regulated to a nicety, and be not too great in the initia- 
tory stage, if you increase it gradually and force fresh air 
into the room at intervals, you will secure a color and 
quality that will vie with the best in the market. I have 
treated Pennsylvania leaf by stove heat and have produced 
fine dark wrappers, such as are always in demand, and 
])ring the best possible prices. What is wanted in chewing 



Tohacco C'dHure. 81 

tobacco is to seeiiro to tlie leaf plenty of gwxu, wax and oil. 
In ci<!;ar tol)a(;eo none of these qualities are desirable; on 
tlie contrary, yon wish to secme a delicate, silky leaf, but 
without lustre, and one that will butii with a white ash. 

There are chemical [)(>ints laid down for observance in 
curing cigar leaf which arc of major importance — f )r iu- 
Ptanee, the mere matter of the prevalence to a greater or 
less extent in cigar leaf of the Cldoride of Potassium and 
the sulphate, nitrate or Carbonite of Pi)tash. On tlie pres- 
ence of these dc[)end the bnrning qualities. The only real, 
eul)stantial, and thoroughly reliable test for cigar leaf is the 
lire test. 

The experiments made by Schloessing in connection with 
the French " liegie " were most interesting and insti'uctivQ 
to tobacconists and growers of the weed. He showed that 
whenever the Snl phulc of Polas.^lum was present in cigar 
leaf it was not combustible, but when tlie Sulphafe, Nitrate 
a)id Carbona/e of Pof(i'<sium were present, tlien it gave a 
Imi-ning tobacco (^f the first quality. As to other tests, 
and how to treat the leaf l)eai'ing upon the pi-esence or ab- 
sence of these various salts, I will give a fuller ex[)Ianatioa 
in the chapters on " Curing Tobacco." 



CHAPTER XV. 



CURING AND STKIl^PING. 



Having described the various buildings required to house 
the difierent grades of tobacco, I propose now to tell you of 
the best known methods for curing cigar and other leaf to- 
bacco, and I purpose first giving you the open aiu method 
for chewing and pipe uses. The sections of country wliere 
these plans are practiced, and where we get the most of 
our plug tobaccos, are the States of Kentucky, Missouri, 
Virixinia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Indiana. There are 
11 



82 Tobacco Culture. 

otiier sections, but tlioir products are, in a commercial view, 
iiisii;Miitic,int. Mncli of tlie iiiie plni>; wra])per prodn-'cd in 
Kortli Cai'oliiia, auil parts of Virii'lnia and Kentucky, are 
cured, as I have mentioned in a preceding' chapter, by hang- 
ing the}»hints on scafi'ulds in the Hehl, and exjjosing them to 
the ra_\ s of the sun and a heated atmosphere, or else shel- 
tering tl)cni in a slied, simply a n^of, on long, strong posts, 
without Q\n\< or si(U's, opi^n all round, allowinii' the warm 
Southern hroeze to lilow through and over the contents. 
This mode of curing their liglit tobaccos is very etfeciive, 
and if the season be favorable, it cannot be impi'oved upon. 
The leaf [)roduced in certain tiounlies of North Carolina is a 
V(M-y light, mild and fragrant tobucco, and when thus cured 
the product is of a In-illiant, golden color, with a polish or 
lustre. This, theref )re, has become very celebrated, and is 
much sought after by manufacturers as an outside wrapper 
lor their biubest grade plug tobacco, and it commands the 
liigliest price of any brand of the kind in this country. 
This gohleu tobacco is also l)eing manufactured into tine 
pipe smoking tobacco, and with cheroot manufacturers is 
also very greatly in demand. 

FIRE OR COAL CURED TOBACCO. 

This, as I have before stated, applies almost entirely to 
plug, pipe, or cheroot tobaccos, and is very popular in the 
southern or south western States. There seems to be two 
or mcM'e objects attained by curing in this wa}', expedition 
in getting the crops ready f >r market, and also securing to 
it tiie greatest possible amount of wax, oil and gum, thus 
giving added weight to the commodity. I do not mean 
that lire produces these elements, for they already exist in 
the plant, but by tire curing a quick chemical change takes 
place which will not allow of any of the ingredients, whivh 
enter into the production of wax, oil and gum, passing 
away or being destroyed. 



Tobacco Culture. 



83 



Tliere is one very dcsiialtlo jtoint to be ii-ained oitlior in 
air c'lii-i'd or tiro c-nred pln^- tolcicco, and that is securing 
nnd fj.ria'i tlio color. The color desired is a, goMen yellow, 
and yon may obtain tbat and lose it, hence it is desirable 
that yon u'et the color and '' ti\ " it so it will "stay." asj 
they sav in Kenturky. To secure these points in "'aircured" 
I'cciuires certain conditions of atnn)s[)here and temperature. 
The tobacco should haiiij; on good sealiolding where it is 
not subjected to any coninujtion, rain or wiud stoi'ins, and 
thc! air shonM raiige in temperature at about sixty to 
Beventytive (h^grees. On very hot (hiys, the sun heating 
down heiivlly nniy dry it t:>o ra[)id!y, the I'icdi color dejieiid- 
ing upon a slower evapi^ration. You nniy obviate this at 
Buch a time by crowding your tobacco sonu>what, and if not 
under roof, by covering it. When the (.-auses which have 
been operating advei'sely pass away, then you may jilace 
youl" lath or jioles tilled witii i)!ants in the same ])osition 
the\' before octtupied. After having been subjected to the 
Bun ami atmosj)here tor about a wt'ek, without covering, 
you may tlien remove it to an open shed where it can hang 
without crowding. Give it plenty of light. Tobacco will 
in)t cure a brilliant yellow without plenty of light. In set- 
ting the color it is very im|;)ortaiit that thei'e be warm and 
l)rigbt weather directly after cuttinii; the cro[>. If tliere be 
a eold wet " spell " of a wet;k or two soon after cutting 
your tobacco, it will acquire a dull-dead ajjpearaiice which 
no after attention can olditeratc, hence the desirability that 
youi" crop be an early one, so that in open air curing ii,yoa 
may have the advantage of the waian early fall montlis. I 
think it is now generally conceded that for all |)ur[toses, 
the earlier yini can ripen and. harvest the crop of tobacco, 
the nmre certain you may feel of having it satisfactorily 
colored and cured. 

I have now shown the contingencies which attend the 
cui'ing of unhoused or non-tire-cured tobacco. 

The tire cure escapes these in a manner, but with it 'tis by 



84 Tobacco Culture. 

no means plain sailitii;:. It is, if anything, liable to moro 
and very serious accidents except it receive the closest care 
and most viirorons circumspection. The very names Jire 
and ham suggest danger, which is always augmenttMl if 
coupled with careless and irrcsponsihle einplo3'ees. Hun- 
dreds of planters annually have their sheds or tobacrco 
barns, with their co'itents, destroyed by fire, by entrusting 
the care of the tirlng-up to their negroes and careless white 
laborers. This point, therefore, deserves merely the caution 
to the planter himself to superintend in person the lire cure 
barns. 

Major Riigland has described his barn, which is twenty feet 
square, in whicli he has twenty fires burning under iive 
tiers of tobacco, f «ur tites in a row on each floor — four coal 
or hickory wood tires, 

A cool night, a sleepy negro or two, a dance or camp 
meeting near by, twenty tires left to care for tliemselves, 
the tale is soon told, a pile of ashes in the morning, and 
the planter's cn^p gone olf in a pufi' of smoke before its 
time. 

He says " tlie first step in curing is called the steaming 
or 3'eIIowing process. Medium tobacco will require about 
thirty-six hours steaming at about ninety degrees Fahr. to 
yellow sufficiently, but tobacco with more or less sap, lar- 
ger or smaller, may require longer or shorter time to 
yellow. Hero the judgment of the curer must be his 
guide. Inexperience<l ]»lanters would do well to secure 
tlie services of an exi)erienced curer. The planter saves in 
the enhanced value of his cro[) many times the money i)aid 
to the curer; and besides, by close observation, he may 
learn in one season to cure .well himself. Theory alone, 
and directions, however good and minute, will not do here, 
but it is practice that must qualify one to cure well. 

The next step in cui'ing yellow tobacco is aiWed fixing 
the color. When the tobacco is sufficiently 3'ellowcd at 
ninety degrees Fahr., the best leaves of a uniform yellow, 



Tobacco CuJturc. 



85 



and the greener ones of a 'iglit pea green enlor, it is time 
to advance the heat gradnally hut cantionsly. 

Keen the heat from ninety to ninety-tive degrees Fahr., 
6ay for abont one liour, then rnn np troni ninety-five de- 
irrees to one hundred deiri-ees, keeiiinir the heat hetweou 
those figures for about tiro hours, observing to let the mer- 
cury descend a little every time atter raising, before put- 
ting on more coal — coal oidy should be used now. This 
is done to prevent sweating the tobacco, a continnou-J heat 
operating more to do that than a fluctuating one, as de- 
scribed. [Should the tobacco get into a fweat at this or 
any future stage, whii-li is indicated by the leaf becoming 
damp ami limber, as though i);irtially scalded, raise theflres 
a little, and o[)en the door: this creates a current of heated 
air that will soon dry out the leaf. The thermometer may 
fall even ten (Jcf/recs here without injury to the color. It ia 
advisable, however, that the tobacco be kept free from 
sweating, if possible. Next advance the lieat, running 
from one hundred to one hundred and five for al)out tioo 
hours. Wlien at one hundred and tive degrees, you have 
arrived at the 7rwst critlcol point in the difficult {)rocess of 
curing bi-ight tobacco. The condition and appearance of 
the tobacco must be the ciirer'a guide. No one can suc- 
cessfully car--! tobacco till he can distinguisli the effects of 
too much or too little heat at this im[)ortant stage. I will 
try to explain what is very [ilain to every ex[)erience(l cnrer, 
but unknown to the beginner. 

Too little heat in fixing color operates to stain the face 
side of the leaf of a dull Spanish brown color, ami is called 
si)ori(jii.(j, and may l)e known to the novice by its eflects be- 
ing visible only on tlie furc side; too inueli heat recMena 
the leaf, first in spots, visible on the edge of the leaf, redUer 
than the former, and visible on both svV/r.yof the leaf. Now, 
to [)revent s[>onging on the one hand, and spotting on tho 
otlier, is the aim of the experienced curer. Therefore, no 
definite time can be laid down to run from one hundred and 



86 Tobacco Cidfure. 

five to one hundred and ten deg^rees. Soniotinies one hour 
is snfficiiMit, sometimes three is fast enouiih. The same 
may be said in runnin<2^ from one hun(h'ed and ten degrees 
to one hundred and twenty (h'grees. While it is usual to 
advance in this stage about five. degrees every two hours for 
medium tobacco, the condition of tlie tol)acco often indi- 
cates to the practiced eye the necessity for slower or f ister 
movemen.ts. Remeniber, not to advance over one liundied 
and ten degrees till tlie tails begin to curl up slightly at the 
ends. 

Arrived at one humh'ed and twenty (^egrees, this is tlie 
curing process. Tlie heat shouhl remain at or near one hun- 
dred and twenty degrees, till the leaf is cured, which takes 
from four to eight hours, acc(^rding to circumstances. When 
the leaf appears cared, advance live degrees every liour njn 
to one hundred and seventy dciiiees, and liere remain till 
stalk and stem are cured. To run above one liunibed and 
eighty degrees is to endanger scorching the tobacco, and 
perhaps burning both barn and tobacco. To reca[)itulate : 

Firsf, Steaming or yellowing;- process, . 90 decrees for 30 hours. 
*S'econd, Fixing the color, . . i'O to 95 degrees for 1 to 2 " 
" " . . 9-3 to K'O " 2 " 



101) lo 195 






2 


Klj to 110 






1 to 3 


110 to il"> 






o 


lir, to ll'O 






o 


120 






4toS 


120 to 170 


" 5 


dc 


>g. per 



Third, Curing of leaf, 

Fourth, Curitjg stalk and stem, 120 to 170 

and continue at one iiundred and seventy degrees till stalk 
and stem.ai'e tlioroughly cure(h 

After curing, as soon as the tobacco is sufficiently soft to 
move, it should be run u[) in the roof of the barn and 
crowded close. If warm, rainy, or dan.i}) seasons occur soon 
after, dry out the tobacco with coal fires, remembering to 
commence with small fires, as when cuiing, and gradually 
raise them till the tobacco is well dried. It is important 



Tobacco Cultarc. 



8T 



to nttoiu'l slrietlv totliis, for if yonr tol^acco is cured yellow, 
it will not rcnKiin so if, soon nftoi" ciirino:, it is sufjered to jrct 
in 1oo " liiiili chIoi-,'' tl ;it is, il^^ol 1) too Hindi moisture. 
When rt'adv to strip, it sliould be assorted well, tlie several 
g-rades put toii;ether, niakini:: aWont three grades of leaf, 
and two of lugs. Tie in neat bundles live or six leaves of 
"Ay//'," ami eigiit to ten of '' //'//>■." IMaee twenty-five l)un- 
dles on tlie stick, and strike down as soon as strip[)ed, un- 
less in too high order. But it is not safe to ])erinit tobacco 
thus stru(;k down in winter order to remain down longer 
than 1st of June. Watch it ch)sely to presei've from injury. 
It is better to market in winter order than to hang up in 
the dry and be "re-ordered," for tobacco (Uice bulked 
<lown and then hung u}) in tiie bai'u again loses that sweet, 
mellow flavor so desirable, and never regains it when pri;^ed. 

Pack neatly in tierces, (half hogsheads making the best 
and most economical), to weigh IVom four humlred to live 
liuu-dred pounds nett. Take (;are that the tobaeeo be not 
pressed so as to stick together or be l)ruised; and let each 
tierce be tilled with tobacco uniform in color, length and 
quality. 

In connection with tire cured tobacco T may mention that 
there has been [latented an apparatus for curing tobacco 
ra[>idly by heat. It is called Ijibb & Company's jiatent fir- 
ing and curing ap[»aratiis. Personally I know knothing of 
this tobacco furnace. 

It is thus s]'()ken of in the TJ. S. Agricidtural Report for 
l&G? : " The apparatus is not costly, and will pay for itself 
by the increased value of ten hogsheads, or, in some cases 
five hogsheads. Ki[ie t(»bacco, by it is adnulted to be worth 
in the market, twice as much as if air cured. It is highly 
recommended by all who have used it. It saves the expense 
of large barns, by effectually curing the tobacco in a few 
da^'s, when it can betaken down and removed to convenient 
sheds, or pushed to the outer sides of the house and stowed 
as close as possible without danger, fur it is thoroughly 



88 Tobacco Culture, 

driod, and the lionse can be ai2:ain lilled, and thus the cnr- 
inii;()f the iM'op goes on niitil all is seenred. With this ap- 
paratus they ehiim the tobacco can be l)roniilit into the 
}tr(^l)er state for strippincT and jjreparing foi" market at any 
time, by means of the warm va])or it procUices wlien ar- 
ranged for the purpose. Any person of ordinary intelli- 
gence can mainige it. So safe is it from danger of fire that 
many careful ]>lanters use it without fear in houses sur- 
rounded by wheat and haystacks." 

This, then, is what is claimed for Bibb & Oo's apparatus. 
Doubtless it answers the purpose well, l)ut I am at a loss to 
see wherein it difi'ers in princi|ile from my own fire drying 
room. As befoi'e stated, the |)rinciple involved is the driving 
off" of the superabundant moisture whic-li tlie i)lant contains. 
My room has two flues, one receiving hot air and the other 
dispensing with it. My lieat generator is in a l)asL'ment 
room below the tobacco room, and always keeps that quar- 
ter warm and comfortable for any purpose connected witli 
the business. 

The Bibb ajiparatus requires a close barn or room. At 
one end of the bai'u the furnace is located, set up:)a a wall 
or foundation of brick or stone. At tlie opposite end of 
the barn, on a line with the furnace, the i'urnaco has a 
large drum, wdiich receives and dispenses heat through and 
by means of a series of large pipes. These pipes conduct 
the heated air to differ'Mit points of the building, and the 
quantity required may be regulated, increased or diminished 
at will, by dampers in the pipes and draft door. In using 
this apparatus on a crop of ripe tobacco, they start in with 
a heat of eighty to eighty-five degrees, this not to be in- 
creased for forty-eight houi-s. At that time, if the yellowing 
process has well commenced, increase tlje heat to one 
hundred or one hundred and ten degrees, and in twenty- 
four hours the tobacco will be well yellowed, when the heat 
should be increased to one hundred and twenty or one liun- 
dred and thirty degrees, maintaining this heat by night and 



Tobacco Culture. 89 

by day, until the tobacco is well cured. It is claimed tliat 
a barn filled with ripe tobacco may be thus cured, ready for 
market, in the space of not exceeding five days, 

I will now take leave of the subject of the houses and ap- 
paratuses used in the various treatments, which is given to 
the different kinds of tobacco, and shall confine myself to 
the metliods proper of 

CURING, STRIPPING AND BULKING. 

AVe will now consider tobacco in a barn, without fire. It 
has been well ripened in the field, and during fine weather 
taken to the dry house where it has been liung up in tiers, 
one above the other, until the house has been tilled. It has 
not been hung too clof-ely or crowded, so that it would 
"house burn " or rot, but just close enough so as to allow 
of a free ventilation throughout tlie mass. The fall and 
the winter have been favorable, and your crop has been 
curing nicely, so that along about February or March, 
(sometimes in January), you find it is all well and nicely 
cured and you are ready for stripping. I wish to impress 
upon my readers right here, that in the matter of stripping 
and sorting the crop, very good judgment is required and 
care, because it is then in your power to so select and ar- 
range the various " leafs " and " grades," as make a very 
decided difference, either one way or the other, in tlie 
amount of money you will receive for your crop. A good 
leaf, a poor leaf, a whole leaf, a half leaf, a perfect leaf, a 
perforated leaf, a dark leaf, a light leaf — all these "leafs" 
have their respective places, and upon their being so ar- 
ranged and gi'ou})ed, each to its fellow, like to like, will 
give character to yourcommodit}^ and weight to your purse. 
See to it, then, that yon liave a good anct entirely efficient 
corps of workers at this time to handle your crop. 

SORTING. 

Cigar tobacco is usually graded or sorted as follows: 
Wra[)pers, seconds and fillers. 
12 



90 Tobacco Culture. 

It is again subdivided as to quality, color, &c., as^first 
quality, second, third, fourth and tifth. The value of 
wrappers, eitlier for cigars or plug tobaccos, depends upon 
the color and general perfection. 

For plug tobacco, the wrapper should be in texture, del- 
icate, silky and tough, and of a brilliant, golden color; 
that for cigars should he, in order to meet most general ap- 
proval, of a dark brovvn, even and smootli, with small, delicate 
ribs. When my tobacco is thoroughly cured, which gener- 
ally happens in February or March, I sidect a mild, damp 
day, after we have had a day or two of drizzling rain, in 
wdiieh to take down and handle my crop. I take hold of a 
handful of the leaves on a plant and I find them soft and 
plialde, as a kid glove or a silk handkerchief Now is 
the time f )r work. Set into it with a will and have a boss 
eye everywhere. Take the lath down from tlieir winter 
rest and relieve them one by one of their burthen. Place 
each plant on a heap, with the stalk ends all facing one 
way . 

Three rnen can now do the stripping. One takes up a 
plant and holds it hy the butt in his left hand, whilst with 
his right he strips off all the bottom or ground leaves, and 
all that are ragged and hadly torn. He then pusses the 
plant to his neighbor, and takes up another plant and. treats 
it in the same way. When he has a small handful, what in 
weight would be four or five ounces, he takes a leaf and 
wraps it around the u[)per part of this handful of leaves, 
for three or four inches, and then tueks the end of this 
binder leaf into the middle of the bundle. Tliis is a hand, 
a culler hand or " lug." The next man takes the plant 
which has been under treatment by the first, and strips otf 
all the upper small and imperfect leaves, which you will treat 
just as your neiirhbor handled his lug, make a bundle or 
hand of about a quarter pound, and tie it round with a leaf 
for a wrapper. This "hand" place on a sepuMte pile of 
seconds. Now then, you come to the last leaves on the 



Tobacco Culture. 91 

plant, and if jon wish to acquire an individual repute for 
excellence in the assortment of youi" product, instead of tie- 
inir tlieni all up into hands as " Firsts," or selected wrap- 
pers, jou niay furllier assort this first quality with a view 
to both size and color. My plan is this, and I will tell you 
why: I know planters who had l»een in the liabit of selling 
all their " Firsts," or liest quality, without sorting colors. 
They receive from eighteen to twenty-tive dollars per one 
hundred pounds, without sorting. When they sorted they 
received as high as forty dollars per one hundred pounds 
foi" the tinest dark wrappers, and from tifteen to twenty-two 
dollars per one hundred pounds for the balance of their 
" Firsts," always making a gain on their pro;]uct of first 
qualify by the sorting pr(~)(.'e-;s, of seven or eight dollars per 
one huiulred j)oun(W. Now then, let your best man, " Sort- 
er " nundjer three, take from the plants which have passed 
through the hands of number one and number two, all the 
darkest brown and most perfect leaves, and as uniform in size, 
texture and general elegance of appearance and fineness as 
he can secure, and then place tlie plant aside. Let liini take 
another [»lant from his neighI)or and go through the same 
proceedings, until he has secured enough leaves for a liand. 
lie will smooth out all the wrinkled leaves and have the 
ends evenly l)rought together at the stems, and then with 
a nice fine leaf, he will, with extra care and dexterity, make 
a " hand," in keeping with the super-excellence of the ma- 
te i*ial. 

This is the very best whicli any " ranche " can produce, 
and will comn\and the highest price. 

Always remember the greatest exactness is required ia 
this first quality as to color, uniformity of size and perfec- 
tion of leaf. Through carelessness slips in a leaf or two, 
hei'C and there in a hand, of a different color, smaller size, 
or with a hole or a slit or two in them, and it will deter- 
iorate your wdiole lot. Buyers will surely detect them. 
Their eyes are very open. They look for imperfections very 



1)2 Tobacco Culture. 

closely, particularly when perfection is claimed, and one or 
two dollars worth of imperfect leaves may vitiate a lot 
worth many hundreds, or cause a depreciation in the price 
to a very considerable extent. 

Your sdiond assortment will be also first class or 
*' Firsts," ditt'e'-ing not in size but in color. Select the 
largest leaves of a uniform size, and of a light brown color, 
and make into hands as before. You may even select a 
third color if you choose and wish to secure a reputation 
for excellence in assorting, and it will pa}' you well. This 
M'ill be a lighter color than the second, but in size and 
quality the same. 

You will have left as a residue much fine tobacco which 
will require further sorting. 

You may make up hands containing very fine dark 
wrappers, fine and perfect but not so large. These will 
bring a fine price. Next you have still smaller leaves, and 
leaves that have been torn or perforated. These must be 
made into hands for '' binders." Very small leaves, badly 
torn leaves and ground leaves, as has been before referred 
to, will be made up into hands or " lugs " which are used 
by manufacturers as fillers, that is the entrails of the cigar. 
This quality commands the lowest price, and is often a drug 
in the market. 

BULKING. 

When you have finished assorting your crop, yon will 
have to put it through a further process of curing before 
packing it into bales, cases or hogsheads for market. Se- 
lect a cool and dry place, and spread down a few boards 
upon the ground, provided there be no board floor to the 
barn. Take the bundles, one at a time and smooth them 
out ; then commence to build a bulk, laying the hands side 
by side, the leaves to the centre and the butts pointing out. 
You may build this pile two or three feet high. Then 



Tobacco Culture. 9 3 

])lace over it a 1)un(lle of liijlit rye straw, and lay a few 
boards on top of tins. Watcli and examine it well so that, 
in case the weather be datnji, yon may at once discover if 
it be heating or getting into too " high " condition. If this 
be the case, open it up at once and turn it over, giving it a 
good airing. If yon allow your tobacco to mould while in 
this condition it will l)e fatal to your hopes; your crop will 
be well nigh valueless. When your tobacco has become 
thoroughly dry or well seasoned, has a strong and sweet 
emel', without mustiness, it is ready for prizing or packing, 
in which shai)e it is ready for tlie market, or to be placed 
in a warm aiul dry warehouse or barn to undergo the sweat- 
ing process. This sweating ]»rocess is a chemical change 
which all cigar tol)ticco mnst undergo before it is available 
for manufacturers' purposes. It is an important operation, 
but one with which tlie grower, as a general rule, is not much 
concerned. Ilis crop is sold in the early Spring, directly 
after he has stripped and packed it. Then the middleman 
or buyer comes in and relieves him of the result of his 
year's labor. 

PRIZING OR PACKING. 

Your tobacco lias been well cured, stripped, assorted 
and bulked. You now wish to send it to market, and 
there are several ways of doing this. You must pack it 
into hogsheads, bah'S or packages. A good lever is nec- 
essary in this case in order to pack it down very tight and 
hard. You may fix your lever to a tree or a strong post, 
into which you have bored holes and driven heavy pins, 
about ten inches apart. Then place your hogshead along- 
side the lever, and bring out a pile of tobacco which has 
been sorted. Put only one quality of leaf in each bale or 
box. Begin to place the tobacco in the middle first, lay- 
ing two layers of " hands" with the leaves pointing in and 
the butts pointing out. Then two other layers around the 



94 lohac'co CuUure. 

edge of the hogshead, leaves to centre and hntts towards 
tlie sides or edges. When yon liave phjced in about one 
hundred pounds (from tifty to one hundred pounds, accord- 
ing to tlie size of the hogsliead) then you may use your 
lever to press the mass lirmly together. Proceed in this 
manner until your hogshead is full, containing ten or twelve 
hundred pounds. These packages are sometimes put up 
weighing even as high as two tliousand pounds, hut it is 
not so good to make such a weighty one, and for several 
reasons. The lirst is the gi'eat diffit'ulty of handliiig, mid 
secondly, by over-pressure the tol)acco blackens and is thus 
injured in quality. When you have your hogshead about 
half full, allow the press to remain on for several hours 
so that the mass may be well settled. Do this likewise 
when you have it full. You may place in the bottom ol 
the barrel or hogshead ii layer of clean and dry rye straw 
on which you build the tobacco heap. See tluit your hogs- 
heads are well made and strong. Place the head in posi- 
tion and your tobacco is ready for the warehouse. 

SWEATING. 

This is a chemical process which the plant must undergo 
before it is ready for the manufacturer's use. With this 
process the grower ordinarily has nothing to do. The 
warehouse man or wdiolesale toltacco merchants buy frohi 
the planter in early Spring, and convey it to their large 
curing houses, where it is further sorted to suit their trade, 
and packed down again to be sw^eated during the summer 
months. Some planters, "however, are now beginning to 
hold their tobacco from one season to another, just as far- 
mers sometimes hold their grain crops for higher prices. 
In order to do this you will have to pack and sweat it, and 
I will explain how it is to be done. There are several 
ways. 

Some packers bulk their tobacco on large piles of five 



Tobacco Culture. 95 

or six tiers of hands, in a warm, dry room, allow it to ro- 
maiii there live or six weeks, in the meantime handling it 
often whenever it i!;ets warm, pjacins; the onter plants in 
the centre, and the inner plants on the outside of the heap, 
thus ins'jrini!: it a uniform sweat. It is then taken down 
and packed in l)oxes, and allowed to stand in the ware- 
house for five or six mouths, when it is read}' for the man- 
ufacturer. Some packers alhnv it to remain in bulk, con- 
ditionitiiii: for this length of time, and then pack for market. 
Others assort and [tack it as soon as received from the 
grower, and alhiw it to go through the process of sweating 
in these same boxes or hogsheads. During the curing, if 
the tolKicco l>e too dvy, a'ou may take a bucket of warm 
water and dip a broom into it, with which you may sprinkle 
the mass, turning it over and over to moisten the whole lot. 
In Cuba and atnong some packers in this country a fluid is 
specially prepared for this purpose. Sometimes it is water 
in which tobacco had lieeii soaked. Among Cuban pack- 
ers it is a CDUimon practice to use rum or a highly aromatic 
wine, jieculiar to the island, to sprinkle and season their 
fine leaf. This is now much resorted to among tobacco- 
nists when the\^ wish to disguise a rank and musty or ill 
flavored tobacco. A decoction is also much used to give 
the native brands of tobacco the peculiar and delightful 
aroma of the Cuban article. The materials much in vogue 
are the vanillj and tonka l)eans, the fluid extract of vale- 
rian and highly flavored herl)s which are steeped in aro- 
matic wine and then sprinkled upon the tobacco, which is 
to be made up. 

When )'Our tobacco has been packed do not keep it in a 
damp place. It you have a good, close, dry house, keep it 
there or iti your barn, on a floor, not upon the ground, as it 
will absorb moisture and mould. If you have been so un- 
fortunate as to have kept it where it absorbed moisture and 
moulded, in this case it must be taken out and hung up to 
dry, and then. repacked. Packing your tobacco in hogsheads 



96 Tobacco Cidture. 

is orenerally known as prizingfor market. This is practiced 
much more in the Southern tobacco states, where the irrade 
is for chewing or pipe purposes, than in Northern districts 
where seed leaf is grown, that which is used for cigars. In 
these places, and for cigar tobacco, the packages are smaller, 
generally bales and cases, containing from one hundred to 
five hundred pounds each. Many growers use strong l)oxes, 
about four feet long, two and one-half feet high, and three 
feet wide. In this box the hands are laid, butts pointing 
toward the side, leaves lapping each other in the centre, and 
arranged thus in layers, very evenly, until the case is filled, 
when a lever is put to it with weights and well pressed 
down, then tilled again, and pressed until the box is full of 
packed tobacco. 

This case is now ready for market, or may be set aside 
in a proper place for sweating. Another mode is the bale. 
This is done by making a box without a bottom or top, 
which you use as a mould, filling it with tobacco, (having some 
long straw bands underneath the mass and running up the 
sides), press it very hard with weights and lever, and then 
take off your box mould. It then has and retains the shape 
of the box. You tie the rye straw bands around it and have 
a compact, square bale of tobacco, which you may transport 
to almost any point. For fine cigar leaf, however, the case, 
holding from three hundred and fifty to four hundred 
pounds, is the best mode of preparing your crop for sliip- 
nient. When preparing to pack your tobacco in hogsheads, 
bale or case, if you find it has become somewhat drj- you 
will then have to give it a light 8priid<ling of warm water, 
and allow it to remain in bulk for a day or two, until it is 
in good condition for handling. I would say here, as I took 
occasion to caution growers, when on the subject of assort- 
ing, be careful, be neat, be particular. Very much depends 
upon this, when you want to find a buyer, with a good price 
for your product. Nice and well made bales or cases, well 
assorted hands, neatly and regularly packed, lying smoothly 



Tobacco Culture. 97 

in the case, all these things strike the hn^-er favorably and 
will pay y<Mi well. Yon may have a brag lot of tobacco, 
none better in the market, bnt if yon ship in bad sliiipe you 
will find jilenty to cry it down, and your cro[) will be ii^ent 
below the rnlin<>; price, simplj- for the want of a little ex^ra 
attention when packiiiii:;. In getting it reaily for mai'ket, 
then, I would sum u[) l)y saying as:>ort and pack your com- 
modity in the best manner possible. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



GENERAL OBSERV.ATIONS. 



I have now taken my readers from the seed to the ware- 
house. We have planted the phmtsand harvested the crop. 
There is much yet that remains to lie said, but which lack 
of space will not permit. I was induced to pen this work 
from the fact that in my own case, I found I needed just 
such a hand book, and could not procui'e one because there 
is nothing of the kind. I started out Vv'ith the intention of 
writing a little work, a hand book or guide for the beginner 
in the culture of tobacco, and that it should not be long or 
tedious, a book of not more than one hundred and tifty to 
one hundred and sixty jiages. This end I have kei>t in view 
and also that the book should sell at a small price, so as to 
be within the reach of every grower of the weed. I liave 
given my own experience and the practical teachings of 
many of the most successful growers. In this latter course 
I may have often gone over the same ground in some jtoints, 
but I wished to show the various methods })ursued in many 
localities. For very valualde inf )rniatiou I am indebted to 
my friend Mr. Jolin Ott, of Richmond, A'iiginia, and the jirac- 
tical results and teachings which I have derived from Major 
Ragland, of Halifax county. Virginia, have beeu most val- 
13 



98 Tobacco Culture. 

liable to me. He is the largest grower of Fine Yellow To- 
bacco, in this country, and is standard authority on the sub- 
ject. To the courtesy of these gentlemen I am much in- 
debted for material, which I otherwise would not have been 
able to obtain, at least as soon, and as thoroughly as I have 
done. To them, therefore, I extend my sincere thanks, as 
one of my first remarks in this chapter on General Obser- 
vations. 

Many persons ask the questions : "How much tobacco 
can you raise on an acre? " " What will it cost per acre 
to raise tobacco ? " " How much money can you make on 
an acre of tobacco? " " What kind of tobacco would you 
put out?" "Ain't it very hard on the land?*' Such 
questions as the above I am often asked, and many more 
of a like import. I will endeavor to answer them in this 
chapter, giving as clear and conclusive evidence on each 
point as I can, embracing some facts, figures, statistics and 
general topics which have not been embodied in any pre- 
ceding chapter. To the first question, how much tobacco 
can be raised per acre, I reply ; that depends on many and 
various circumstances, land, climate, quality, and condition 
of soil as to fertility, kind of tobacco raised and favorable- 
ness of the season. In Kentucky and Virginia, on good 
soil, w^ith favorable season, one thousand to twelve hundred 
pounds of tobacco is often the result per acre, though this 
is by no means the average crop. Eight hundred pounds 
of good merchantable tobacco is considered a fair yield in 
either of these States, eight hundred pounds of good to- 
bacco that will bring a good price. In North Carolina 
where the soil is thin and the plant raised a very light one, 
the yield per acre is likewise light, but owing to its bril- 
liant color and general good qualities, what it lacks in 
weight it makes up in price, bringing from thirty to as high 
as eighty dollars per hundred pounds for its choice wrap- 
pers. Much the same may be said of that raised in corre- 
sponding tobacco districts of Virginia and Maryland. Mis- 



Tobacco Cidture. 99 

soiiri raises large crops of tf)baeco, her lands being new 
the yield is large and quality good, much like that grown 
in Kentuck3^ One thousand pounds per acre may be set 
down as a fair yield in that State, all things being favora- 
ble for its production. 

Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Connecticut grow the seed leaf 
or cigar tobacco mainly. Lancaster county being the "Ban- 
ner County " of the whole country we will quote her yield 
to show the great profit ot the crop. Fifteen hundred to 
two thousand pounds of tobacco is not at all an uncommon 
yield per acre of tobacco in this county. I myself have 
raised that amount in good marketable cigar tobacco. 
Many tall stories are told in Lancaster county as to the 
yield in pounds per acre, some of them almost exceeding 
belief. I have, however, received from entirely trust- 
worthy sources, information which I have no reason to 
doubt, that some farmers raise as much as two thousand 
live hundred pounds per acre. Of all the districts now en- 
gaged in cultivating this plant, Connecticut and Pennsyl- 
vania present the highest average yield, sixteen hundred 
pounds per acre, as taken from the " Report of the Com- 
missioner of Agriculture for the United States. Kentucky 
averages per acre 630 pounds, Virginia 630 pounds, Mis- 
souri 850 pounds, Marj'land 675 pounds. West Virginia 680 
pounds, North Carolina 500 pounds, Tennessee 675 pounds, 
Ohio 700 pounds, Indiana 500 pounds, Illinois 550 pounds, 
Texas 650 pounds. New Hampshire 1600 pounds. New 
Y<irk 800 pounds, Massachusetts 1850 pounds, Georgia 
550 pounds, Florida 750 pounds, Mississippi 317 pounds, 
Alabama 465 pounds, Arkansas 8l^2 pounds, Wisconsin 500 
pounds, Kansas 670 pounds. This report was made for 
1^75, since which time there has been some material 
changes, but no statistics have been given on the subject in 
the volume for 1876. The average yield in Pennsylvania 
now exceeds that of any other State. This result is mainly 
due to the excellence of her soil and farming combined, 



100 lohacco Culture. 

and the high average miglit be obtained by man}^ other 
States by the same excellence and jndicions treatment of 
their soils in managing this most hicrative product. 

What will it cost per acre? This is another frequent 
query, and depends greatly upon locality, cost of hd)or, t^r- 
tilizers, and other things necessary to its production. In 
Connecticut many growers will spend one huncb^ed dollars 
on manures and other fertilizers alone for every acre they 
put out in tobacco. This would not be necessarj' at all in 
a district where the land is new and naturally rich. In Lan- 
caster county good }»lanters will expend, say for manure, 
twenty-five dollars. Interest on land at three hundred dol- 
lars per acre, at 6 per ct. eighteen dollars, six thousand plants, 
Bay six dollars, plowing land, spreading manure, setting 
plants, worming, topping, suckering, cutting, lianging, 
stripping, and all labor necessary, say fifry dollars, or in 
round nuivjbers one hundred dollars per acre. Kow some 
farmers will do it for much less, they will raise their own 
plants, they will hire cheaper labor, and will not expend 
twenty-tive dollars in manure. Others will expend njore. 
Set down seventy-five dollars, and you will not bo far wrong 
if you farm well, and treat your land as you should and as 
it must be treated to raise a good crop of tobacco. 

How much money can be made from an acre of tobacco? 
This question likewise ha,s a wide range. I can with care, 
diligence, a good season and good market make two hun- 
dred dollars per acre, but not average that amount year 
after year. Farmers in Lancaster county have made four 
hundred, five hundred, and six hundred dollars per acre, 
but these are exceptional yields as they had remarkably 
large crops, and sold them for very high figures. One far- 
mer told rae he sold his whole crop of very many thousand 
pounds, in the fidd, at thirty dt)llars per hundred pounds, 
that is it was engaged at that price, and he received it wdien 
his crop had been cut, cured and cased for market. 

One reliable grower in that county informed me that he 



Tobacco Culture. * 101 

disposed of liis last year's crop (187G) from Q]ir:ht and a-lialf 
acres for five thousand two hundred (h)nars. Another one 
received, so I was informed, eleven thousand doUars for 
twenty-one acres of tobacco, and still another was paid six 
thousand dolhirs for a little over twelve acres of crop 
of 1876. 

These yields seem marvellous, and so tliey are, but never- 
theless they are true as any one may verify by acquainting 
liiniself with the proliHc people of that prolific county. 
Their energy, thrift, and intelligeiit management of the 
soil is a pattern which tlie InisbaiKbnon of any State may 
follow, and never go wrong, hut 'iwill surely lead to pros- 
})erity, comfort and wealth. Lancaster may be proud of lier 
peo[ile, her peo[)Ie may he proud of Lancaster, and the coun- 
try at large may well be proud of them both. I am not a 
Lancasterian. I couldn't well say more if I was. To sum 
up then, taking Lancaster county figures as a criterion to 
base future results, the prospect, to say the least is most en- 
couraging. With as good land as theirs and equal intt-lli- 
gence a[)i»lied with your labor in tlie treatment of the crop, 
you may reasonably expect to realize a profit of several 
lnindre<l dollars per acre. This is not mere hypothesis, but 
is based on figures and upon actual results. " What man 
has done man again may (b)." Wliat men are still reaping 
like results others may obtain. Aim high and resolve to 
obtain the best possible results, and you will not be disap- 
pointed in the issue of the yield of tobacco, barring all un- 
toward features, sucli as a great drought, a heavy frost killing 
your plants when fir«t set out, or the crop just belbre ma- 
turity. 

" What kind of tobacco should T put out?" This like- 
wise calls for enlightenment. Ascertain from some reliable 
source what tobaccos are grown in or near your locality, 
with the best success and greatest possible results to the 
planter. This is an easy matter to determine. If you live 
in Ohio, plant the Ohio seed leaf, or the Connecticut seed 



102 lobacco Cidture. 

leaf, or the Peniisjlvaiiia seed leaf. Tf in Connecticut. gTo\r 
that which there succeeds best, their own native leaf, or 
rather what is known fiir and wide as Coimecticut seed leaf. 
If in Pennsylvania, a^row the Connecticut seed leaf, or the 
Pennsjlvaiiia seed leaf, or the Cuban leaf. You can oet a 
plant now grown with success which is a mingling of the 
Connecticut and Cuban leafs. It grows a fine crop and 
gives a good marketable tobacco, commanding a high price. 
This is known as the Pennsjlvania Havanna. In A-^irginia, 
Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and N"orth Carolina, the fa- 
vorites are known as the Oronokos, the Pryors, Yellow l^ry- 
or, Blue Pryor. Silky Pryor, (this last named brand is a 
great favorite with Major Ragland, who thinks it oue of the 
best grown), White Stem, Big Stem. Little Frederick, White 
Burley and Long and Small Green. They are chewing or 
pipe tobaccos, and raueh of it is known as shipping tobacco. 
In Bucks county, Pennsylvania, a lobacco is grown, whicli 
is known as the " Duck Island " leaf It is a cross on Ha- 
vanna and is much sought after by manufacturers. 

In Fh)rida a brand is grown which is also from Havanna 
seed. It is known as the " Gadsden wrapper." Gadsden 
county, Florida, produces this variety, the seed of which as 
before said was obtained from Cuba. They have been en- 
gaged in cultivating it for forty years. It has a small, nar- 
row leaf, and possesses to a remarkable degree the peculiar 
aroma and delicate fragrance of the highly prized Havanna 
cigar. 

Since the advent of German buyers, (says the TJ. S. Re- 
port for 1874) an article was introduced, which produces 
the Florida wrapper, and is now the main growth. Its 
leaves are sometimes three feet in length and twenty inches 
in breadth, of a fine silky texture, admirably adapted for 
use as wrappers, the coarser leaves being used very accept- 
ably as fillers. Another variety, medium in size, introduced 
since the war, highly aromatic, even sometimes pungent, 
makes a strong cigar. A writer on its cultivation there,, 



Tobacco CuUare, 103 

says : " The prevalent opinion heretofore, that freshly 
cleared land was essential to the production of a tine quality 
of tohacco is fast giving way as the result of experience, it 
being found tliat successive crops may be grown on the same 
land without any deterioration in quality, so long as the 
fertility of the soil is maintained at its original standard, 
and it is being kept fouled with i^rass and weeds." Usually 
upon lands appropriated to tobacco no fertilizers are used 
for the first and second crops ; after that a compost of barn 
^ard manure aiul cotton seed, applied in the hill, is found 
to give the best results. In cultivation, if a lighter article is 
desired, the plow may be dispensed with after breaking up 
the land, and the cultivation done with the hoe. If a thick, 
iieavy leaf is desired, tlie plant is topped so as to leave 
twelve or fourteen leaves; if a lighter article, it may grow 
until it begins to throw out the seed branches. This method 
of cultivation in Florida, will apply to any tobacco growing 
section, and what is here mentioned relative to keeping up 
the fertility of the soil, will apply to any soil, and will serve 
to answer another of the questions often asked me, to wit : 
Does not the cultivation of tobacco exhaust the soil ? Is it 
not very hard on land ? 

It is hard on laud certainly, so is any lai'ge crop when 
you fail to return largely to the soil those elements of which 
it has been depleted. Of tobacco, however, it can be said, 
that the land will require and respond to heavier and more 
liberal manuring than that demanded by most any other 
t;'rop known. And that reminds me, just here, wdiile on the 
subject of fertilizing, that all kinds of climate and soil do 
not require the same kinds of fertilizing. I have been in 
correspondence with Air. John Ott, of Richmond, Virginia, 
on this very subject. He has paid as much attention to the 
matter perhaps, both in a scientific and practical way, as 
an}' man in this country, hence his views are valuable, ac- 
cordingly. He says : " In the preparing of a fertilizer the 
climate is quite as essential as the soil, in order to be effect- 



104 7ohacco Culiure. 

ive and produce tlie best possible! results." An nrtide 
adapted to tlie wants of tlie Virginia planter, would not be 
at all suitable for New England, An article intetided for cer- 
tain soils and diiiereni kinds of plug wrappers in Virginia 
or North Carolina, would not produce at all satisfactory re- 
sults in Connecticut or Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 
the production of seed leaf or cigar tobacco. What is 
wanted, as has been said before, in [ilng tobacco, are plenty 
of gum, wax and oil. These are desideratums. But in ci- 
gar leaf none of them are desirable. What you do want in 
such tobacco is — a delicate, silky leaf, but without lustre, 
and one that will burn evenly ami freely and with a white 
ash. To secure these, requires in the soil plenty of the 
salts of Potassium. To secure good l)urning qualities you 
must have present the Carbonate, Nitrate and Sulphate 
of Potassium. These are important points. It is for this 
reason that I go over the same subject, relative to tiiese 
chemical ingredients, the second time. 

Your soil may be deficient in these elements. You may 
wonder why you cannot grow your tobacco as others are 
doing, upon land much resembling your own, or as you 
used to do years before. The reason is simple enough, 
your land, good enough in other resi)ects, has become ex- 
hausted of these elements, and will not respond until- they 
are replaced. How are you to do this? You must write to 
some reliable fertilizing company and acquaint them with 
the quality of your soil. Tiiey will advise you as to the 
best fertilizer to use on your land, in conjunction with your 
own barn yard manures, so as to restore the lost elements. 
Treat impoverished soil as you would a sick person. A man 
is weak, debilitated, thin. His ph>sician makes a careful 
diagnosis. From too much work, either of body or brain, 
or both, elements have been wasted which must be replaced 
ere he can be restored to health. The physician finds his 
braiu deficient in phosphates, his blood lacking nutritious 
elements, which render it truly the vital fluid. What does 



Tobacco Culture. 105 

he do? Why, he satisfies himself thoroughly as to what ele- 
ments are required to build up this shattered constitution, 
this weak body with perhaps brain functions impaired. Does 
he need Phosphatic and Iron elements ? Yes ! IIow does 
he give it ? A lump of phosphorus and a pound of nails? 
N^o ! He judiciously prepares some remedies containing the 
phosphates and iron, an easily assimilable form, and also 
food which largely contain these ingredients. He adminis- 
ters them, and soon the blood fl.ows fuller, richer, redder and 
warmer, and new life is instilled into heart, body and brain. 
The man is built up. Just so it should be with the impov- 
erished soil. It is thin. Elements are wanting to grow to- 
bacco. What are they? Largely, perhaps, the salts I have 
mentioned and other ingredients. Get them and administer 
in conjuncfi(jn with other soil food that you know from ex- 
perience is always good for ground and crops. Do this in 
proper quantities and at the proper time. It will richly re- 
pay you and your land will not run down. 

Contribute to your land liberally from your barn 3'ard. 
Forget not that. Remember that no fertilizer can take its 
place. You may find plenty of valuable adjuncts to use, 
but none "in the long run " to bear comparison with it. 
Keep plenty of stock. Use up all the food material you 
raise on your farm, converting hay, straw, fodder, &c., into 
manure. Have all the tobacco stalks and stems saved and 
ground up, and spread upon your patch. Have a care that 
you do not put out too much tobacco, because you may have to 
apply manure on it to the detriment of the balance of your 
land. Remember tobacco is a luxury, not food. Your 
first duty is to supply food for 3X)urself and your stock. 
You must not lose sight of this fact. Therefore do not 
neglect your grasses and potatoes, and the cereals, in your 
eager haste to reap gold from a tobacco crop. Cultivate 
just what you can well manage, and without interfering 
with the ordinary products of your farm. Do not think 
vou can buy food and manure. This some farmers have 
14 



106 Tobacco Culture. 

followed to their sorrow. Make all the manure you can. 
Raise your usual crops of corn, wheat, oats, rye and pota- 
toes, together with hay and fodder. Keep good thrifty 
young cattle. They will fatten, grow into money for you, 
and every season fill j^our barnyard with well rotted manure 
and thus you will not see your soil run down and yourself 
become impoverished. Keep these things in view, and if 
you do so well and wisely, tobacco will make you rich. 



CHAPTER XYII. 

STATISTICS AND TOBACCO PROSPECTS. 

The question is often asked " may not the tobacco mar- 
ket be overstocked and the crop rendered uou-paying?" 
There is at first glance some foundation for this hypotheti- 
cal fear. The area now planted in tobacco, if all put to- 
gether in this country, would in extent equal the area of but 
two ordinary counties and yet this comparatively small 
amovmt of acreage is adequate to the demands of the world 
at large for the " weed." There can be no doubt but that, 
if in a single season this area was doubled, the market 
would be glutted and prices decline to a very low figure. 
This, however, is not likely, and there are several causes 
which are continually militating against the plant as a crop 
which tend to keep prices at all times up to a remunerative 
point. First, there are failures every year to a greater or 
less extent in the different tobacco growing districts of the 
world. One season it may be Cuba, or some other of the 
islands, or some districts in South America; another 
time Kentuck}', Virginia, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, 
or Missouri, failures or but half crops. Another thing, 
whilst every season there are new districts and more 
acreage brought under cultivation, others are decreas- 



lobacco Culture. 107 

ing and being partially or wholly abandoned. Then 
again, according to statistics in this and other coun- 
tries the consumption of tobacco is steadily increasing. At 
no time since the discovery and general introduction of the 
weed has there been any marked decrease in the use of this 
luxur3^ These facts taken together go to show that, while 
there is a possibility, it is not probable there will be an 
over-production of this commodity, but it will ever remain 
a highly remunerative crop. 

From the earliest days in the history of our land, tobacco as 
a staple commodity, and producer of revenue, has occupied a 
commanding position. From it communities have grown 
rich. States become powerful and enviable, financially, and 
the producers have been able to command every comfort 
and luxury. Planters have been able to secure for their 
children and ftimilies, the full benefits of a most liberal ed- 
ucation and the culture of polished society, and it has ena- 
bled them to dispense a hospitality which has given them 
a reputation in every part of the globe. It possesses a 
financial power wherever largely cultivated, and gives a solid 
comfort and independence to the people of all such regions. 

The beginner in cultiv^ating tobacco should most careful Ij'' 
keep in view and act upon two things. 

First: Place under cultivation just so much land as you 
can work in the best manner possible, remembering that 
one acre well handled, will produce more and better tobacco 
than two acres carelessly cultivated, and for which you 
have been unable to secure the full amount of nutriment 
fertilizers. You must not aim to produce the largest quan- 
tity but a crop of the most excellent quality. I will give 
here the chemical or mineral analysis of the best Virginia 
tobacco, as made by Dr. Yoelcker, of London, England, 
for Mr. John Ott, of Richmond, Virginia. This analysis 
was made from the ashes ; 



108 



Jobacco Culture. 



Lime 










23.39 


Magnesia, .... 










4.05 


Oxide of Iron, 










.81 


Potash, 










18.55 


Chloride of Potassium, 










5.82 


Chloride of Sodium, 










7.17 


Phosphoric acid, . 










3.36 


Sulphuric acid, 










3.37 


Soluble Sileca, 










13.80 


Fine sand, .... 










5.72 


Carbonic acid and loss, 










13.96 



100.00 

From the same source we have the following detailed 
analysis of the fine bright Virginia wrapper : 

Moisture, 14.68 

Gum, extractive and other substances soluble in water, 36.17 
Mineral matters soluble in water, .... 8.92 

Nicotine, 1.37 

Resinous compounds, oil and other constituents solu- 
ble in ether and alcohol, 6.68 

Digestible woody fibre, 14.43 

Indigestible woody fibre (pure cellulose) . . 12.42 

Mineral matter, insoluble in water, .... 4.33 



100.00 

Tobaccos vary in the quantity of nitrogen contained. It 

would seem that, according to the analysis given, delicate, 

mild flavored tobaccos are poor in nitrogen. Thus for 

instance : 

Per cent, of Per cent, of 
Nitrogen. Ash. 

"Lone Jack" 1.65 14.93 

Perfection straight cut matchless, . 1.68 16.48 

Louisiana Perique .... 3.04 20.55 

Thus you will see the difference between the black strong 
Perique tobacco and the others in the quantity of both Ni- 
trogen and Ash. 

The increase or decrease of these elements will be deter- 
mined by locality, the quality of soil and the amount and 



Tobacco adture. 109 

character of the fertilizers used. For iiistauee this black, 
pniigent and exceedingly strong tobacco, Periqne, is grown 
in the particular climate and soil peculiar to St. James' 
Parish, Louisiana. The " Gadsden " wrapper leaf, another 
tobacco of a peculiar kind, and one that now rivals Cuban 
leaf, is peculiar alone to Gadsden county, Florida. 

In connection with these remarks on the analysis of to- 
baccos, we find that they contain largely of tlie salts of 
potash and nitrogen, hence soil must contain these elements 
in order to produce good tobacco. This is why such large 
crops and excellent quality of tobacco are produced from 
newly cleared land, and from river or creek bottom-lands 
which have been subjected to overflow\ They contain 
much vegetable matter, a vegetable mould, from which the 
plant mainly derives its salts. This in like manner is why 
barn yard manure is the best fertilizer of tobacco. Remem- 
ber these points. 

The tobaccos known in the markets of this country and 
also in many parts of Europe have various names commer- 
cially. Thus the plant grown in the north has the general 
name of "Seed Leaf" which is further localized by " Con- 
necticut See<l Leaf," " Pennsylvania Seed Leaf," and " Ohio 
Seed Leaf." These names apply to cigar tobaccos alone. 
We have then other names, such as " Western," " Mary- 
land," ''01110," "Virginia," "Kentucky," although the 
term " Western " takes in the tobaccos generally grown in 
the west and south-west. It has also another commercial 
term, " Shipping." 

The following are some of the rival tobacco producing 
countries of the world, together with their products of the 
weed per year, I give the statistics for 1873 : 

Pounds. 
Austrian Empire, (inchiding Hungary), . . 58,000,000 
Turlsey, price 3d. to 3s. and 4s. per lb., . . 43,000,000 

Brazil, price 3d. to Is., 6d. "... 34,419,385 

Cuba, price is. to 12s 225,139,000 

Philippine Islands, price 6d. to 5s. per lb., . . 171,803 



no 



lobacco Culture. 



Japan, price '6d. to 8d. 
China, price 3d. to 6d. 
New Granada, price 6d. to 2s. 
Ecuador, price Is , 2d. to 23. 
Venezuela, price 4d. 
Guatemala, price 4d. 
Mexico, price 8d. to Is., 6d. 
Porti Rico, price 6d. 
San Domingo, price 6d. to Is., 3d 
Greece, price 3d. to 4d. 
France, price 4d. to 8d. 
Russia, price 8d. to Is. 
British India, price 2d. to 3s. 
Australia, price 29. 
Argentine Con., price 6d. to 9d. 
Holland, price Sd. to 7d. 



per lb., (Exported) 



(Value). 
(Exported 



6,600,33"(> 

10,o26,00(> 

10,708,320 

500,000 

59,505 

1,000,000 

845.150 

1,603,420 

. 15,024,800 

339,712 

3,167,181 

$23,820,000 

3,362,000 

2,136,804 

340,787 

20,820,200 



Great Britain is not a prodncer, but a great consniiier. 

In 1873 she imported 

Poundg. 

Tobacco 81,382,733 

Cigars, 1,627,581 

The duty there oq tobacco is three shillings per pound. 
If it contains less than ten per cent, of moisture, 3s., 6d. 
per pound. In the United States our tax is: On cigars of 
all grades, six dollars per thousand ; on all snuff or snuff 
flour, 24 cents per pound; on all chevving and smoking 
tobacco, 24 cents per pound; Manufacturers of tobacco or 
snuff, special license of $10. Retail dealers in leaf tobacco 
are required to pay a special tax of $500, and if their an- 
nual sales amount to over $1000 they must pay an addi- 
tional tax of fifty cents for every dollar in excess of $1000, 
of their sales. The tax upon dealers in leaf tobacco, those 
who buy and sell on commission original and unbroken 
hogsheads, bales and cases, is $25.00. They must pay this 
amount and secure a license. There is no tax on leaf to- 
bacco. 

Farmers and planters are not required to pay any tax oh 
tobacco of their own raising, or that received by them as 



Tobacco Culture. Ill 

rent from tenants who have produced the same on their 
land. Neither will the farmer be required to pack or prize 
his tobacco before oiferingit for sale, in hogsheads or other- 
wise, but he may sell it loose as he has heretofore been in 
the habit of selling, irrespective of taxation. If, however, 
he sells direct to consumers, or if he sells, assigns, con- 
signs, transfers or disposes of his tobacco to persons other 
than those wlio have paid special taxes, either as leaf deal- 
ers or as manufacturers of tobacco, snuif or cigars, or to 
persons purchasing leaf for export, lie becomes lia])le, as a 
retail dealer in leaf tobacco, to the special tax of $500, and 
to the additional tax of tifty cents on every dollar in excess 
of $1000 of his sales. It is the duty of every farmer pro- 
ducing and selling leaf tobacco, on demand of any revenue 
olKcer, to furnish a complete statement, verified by oath, of 
the amount of his sales, to whom sold, and where shipped. 

This is then about the sum and substance of the revenue 
laws on tobacco : 

N"o tax on the raw material. _ 4':>a<^~^ ^-^" ^'^*''^ ' 

Wholesale license $25.00. 

Retail license, -^SrOOTand 50 cents on each one dollar 
in excess of sales over $1000. 

Snuff, 24 cents per pound. 

Chewing and smoking tobaccos, 24 cents per pound. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

COLLONIAL HISTORY OF TOBACCO. 

In the early pages of this book I gave a brief, general 
historical account of tobacco, its discovery and introduction 
as a luxury to the world at large. Since I wrote the article 
in question, and after it was in print, I was so fortunate as 
to receive a short historical essay on " the weed " by Mr. 



112 Tobacco Culture. 

John Ott, of Richraoiid, Vir^'inia. It tells of tobacco as 
grown in Virginia in collonial clays, and much valua1)le in- 
formation generally. Mr. Ott secured most of his data 
from old collonial documents, and the subject matter is in 
that quaint old manner of speech which was in vogue in 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I have kindly 
received permission to use this material from Mr. Ott and 
I gladly present it to my readers, feeling sure that to them 
it will prove interesting reading, as it was to me, 

DISCOVERY. 

If Thomas had lived in this present time lie would have 
failed of any particular notoriety, inasmuch as faith appears 
to have been relegated to the days of yore, and doubt reigns 
supreme. The inconoclasts are busy at all points, and in 
another century or two Washington himself will undoubt- 
edly dwindle into a myth, Sh ikespeare, under their hands, 
turns out to be only a nom de jplume of Lord Bacon, and 
"Bloody Mary" a most amiable lady. Until lately, it was 
accepted on all hands, that the advent of Tobacco into the 
world at large dates from the discovery of America by Col- 
umbus, and that civilized white man was consequetitly in- 
debted for this solace to the "gentle salvages" who' occu- 
pied these western shores. Now it is claimed that the 
people of the Orient were habitual lovers of the Weed long 
before the journey to the Indies by sailing westward was 
even dreamt of. 

We have no room to enumerate the theories relating to 
the ante-Columbus use of Tobacco ; indeed, must confine 
ourselves here to a few definite facts relating to this plant 
in America prior to the colonization of Virginia. In No- 
vember, 1492, its use was first observed (in Cuba), and by 
the sailors of Columbus, during his first voyage. The to- 
bacco was enjoyed in the form of a cigar, with a wrapper 
of corn shuck, and time has not changed this fimcy in that 



lobacco Culture. 113 

quarter, the cigar being still universally preferred. In 1503 
the Spaniards found the natives of Paraguay chewing it. 
It was one of their methods of waging war to spurt the 
juice into the eyes of their adversaries. Roman Pane, 1494, 
goes quite fully into the matter in the account he wrote of 
the second voyage of Columbus. The name he gives for 
the plant is cogiaha, which was its name in Ilispaniola; the 
word is spelt by other travelers cohiba. Ovieda, [Historia 
General de las Indias, 1526) says the word tobacco was not 
that of the plant itself but of the appliance used iu smoking 
it. This was " about a span long, and when used the forked 
ends (Y) are inserted in the nostrils, the other end being 
applied to the burning leaves of the herb." Gomara, 1510, 
describes its use in Mexico, where it was axUed piecelt ; and 
De Bry. in 1590. in Brazil, where the name it bore was petun. 
Sir Francis Drake, in 1572, noted its use generally through- 
out Xorth America, as far as tliat continent was discovered. 

Our main purpose, in the following pages, is to present to 
our friends this noble crop, as it has borne from the begin- 
ning upon the prosperity and comfort of the Common- 
wealth of Virginia. It deserves always our most grateful 
recognition. Of course its treatment necessarily includes 
reference to the contiguous territory ot Mar\'land and North 
Carolina; and as our space is limited, we will have, in re- 
spect of the facts, (using the words of Sir Edwin Sandys,) 
" to draw them into head, and ripen the business." 

In examining the nuiterial, bearing upon a crop holding 
such importancf^ in the trade of the world as tobacco, we 
tind the authorities to i)e very numerous. Whether, there- 
fore, the source of inforuuition is indicated or not, what is 
submitted nuiy be accepted as at least authentic. 

I. — tobacco in VIRGINIA FROM ITS SETTLEMENT TO THE CLOSE 
OF THE REVOLUTION. 

If man was put into the world merely to maintain an ex- 
istence, civilization would be impossible. The flesh of 
15 



114 Tobacco Culture. 

beasts, seasoned with parciied corn niul wild onions would 
undoubtedly preserve health a& well as life. But he de- 
mands more ; he must enjoy himself also. His artificial 
wants then have been the improrinr/ side of his career, and 
in the desire for the means to gratify these wants, he has 
reached a development that proves his paternity to be of 
God. Few men work for the love of work. 

The reproof in Peter's vision did not stop with him. The 
earth is covered with a manifold vesture, and not a few of 
its products that we once despised in our ignorance we now 
find to be of the utmost value. Even the " worthless a^^ae" 
has become precious. And tobacco, in our pleasures, holds 
a place assigned to few things of actual need ; indeed, if 
human experience, high and low, is deemed to be a proper 
judge, tobacco, next to bread and raiment, is most esteemed 
by man. Adopting the words of Pairholt : " a philosoph- 
ic and charitable view of the minor indulgences of life 
would lead us to look with no frowning eye upon the simple 
pleasures of the poor, — and tobacco has been called 'the ano- 
dyne of poverty.' He would be harsh indeed who would 
deprive the poor man of the hard-earned solace his pipe 
presents, the small reward of comfort vouchsafed a long life 
of toil. There must be some charm, which he, in his narrow 
philosophy, cannot comprehend, which can recompense in 
the pipe the toil and privation endured b}' the laborer, the 
discomfort of the sailor on a stormy deck, or the soldier in 
the trenches. As a comfort to the poor, as a luxury to the 
rich, tobacco unites all classes in a common pleasure." 

What follows will be more a grouping together of extracts 
from trustworthy documents, showirjg points of interest in 
respect of this crop, than any connected history, as this 
would occupy more space than we have at our command. 

During the voyage made by the expedition fitted out un- 
der the patronage of Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1584, Vir- 
ginia, was discovered. Hariot, who was with the expedi- 
tion, published in 1588, " A Briefc and True Report of the 



Tuhacco Culture. 115 

IVrw Fouiul Ij<iii<I of Virf/fiiia." Of tol)ace<^ he makes the 
lonovvii)<^ rnetitii)n : There is an herbe which is sowed by 
itselie, and is called by the inhabitants uppowoc. In the 
West Indies it hath divers naniers, according to the severall 
countries where it groweth and is used; the Spaniards gen- 
erally called it tobacco. The leaves thereof being- dried and 
bi-()uglit to powder, they use to take the fume or smoke 
thereof, l)y sucking it through pipes made of oXay, into 
their stomacke and iieade, whence it purgeth superfluous 
fleame and other gi'osse humours ; openeth all the pores and 
passages of tlie body, by which means the use thereof not 
only preservetli the body Irom obstructions, but also if any 
be so that they have not beene of too long continuance, in 
short time Ijreaketh them ; whei'el)y their bodies are nota- 
bly preserved in liealth, and know not many grievous dis- 
eases wherewitlj we in England are oftentimes affected. 
This Ujtpou'oc is of so precious estimation amongest tliem 
that they thinke their gods are marvellously deliglited 
therewith ; whereupon sometime they make halowed fires, 
and cast some of the powder therein for a sacrifice. Being 
in a etorme uppoti the waters, tojiacifie their gods, they cast 
some into the aire and into tJie water; so a weare for fish 
being newly set n|), they cast some tlierein and into the 
aire ; idso aftei' an escape of danger they cast some into the 
aire likewise; but all done with strange gestures, stamping, 
sometime danncing, cla[)pinii of hands, and staring up into 
the heavens, uttering therewithal and chattering strange 
wordes, and noises. We ourselves during the time we were 
there used to sucdv it after their manner, as also since our re- 
turn, and have found many rare and w^onderfull experi- 
ments of the virtues thereof, of wdiich the relation would 
require a volume by itselfe ; the use of it by so manie of late, 
men and women, of great calling as else, and some learned 
phisitions also, is sutiicient witness." 

William Strachey, the first Secretary of the Colony, 
wrote, in IGIC, the following about tobacco : " Here is a 



116 Tobacco Culture. 

great store of tobacco, which the salvages call apooke; how- 
beit, it is not of the best kind; it is but poor and weake, 
and of a biting taste; it grows not fully a yard above 
ground, bearing a little 3'ellow flower like to henbane ; the 
leaves are short and thicke, somewhat round at tlie upper 
end ; whereas the best tobacco of Trynidado and the Orin- 
oqiie is large, sharpe, and growing two or three yards from 
the ground, bearing a flower of tlie breadth of our bell 
flowers in England; the salvages here dry the leaves of this 
apooke over the fier, and sometimes in the sun, and crumble 
it into powder — stalks, leaves and all — taking the same in 
pipes of earth, which they very ingeniously can make." 

Beverley, page 116, says: "lam informed that they 
[the Indians] used to let it [tobacco] all run to seed, only 
succoring the leaves to keep the sprouts from growing upon 
and starving them; and when it was ripe they pulled ott' 
the leaves, cured them in the sun, and laid them up for use. 
But the planters make a heavy bustle with it now,- and can't 
please the market neither." 

Sir Ralph Lane, first Governor of the Colony, and not 
Sir Walter Raleigh, appears to have the honor of intro- 
ducing tobacco into England, Captain Yeardley, Deputy 
Governor in 1616, directed the colonists to tobacco as a 
crop that promised good returns, and this year witnessed its 
first planting by white men of Virginia. According to 
Hamor, John Rolfe, (the husband of Pocahontas), was the 
man who " took the lead." 

Captain Jonx Smith, among other things, says that in 
this good land of Virginia, '• The vesture of the earth in 
most cases doth manifestly prove tlie nature of the soyle to 
be lusty and very rich. * * * j^qp h^q most part 
it is a black sandy mould, in some places a fat, slimy clay, 
in other places a very barren gravell. But the best ground 
is known by the vesture it beareth, as by the greatnesse of 
trees, or abundance of weeds, &c. * * * Some- 
times there are great droughts, other time much raine, yet 



Tobacco Culture. 117 

groat iiecessitic of ncitlier, by reason we see not but that all 
the varietie of needfull fruits in Europe may be there in 
great plentie, by the industry of men, as appeareth by those 
we there planted." " Mrs. Pierce, an honest, industrious 
woman, after passing twenty years in A'irginia, on her re- 
turn to England (1020), reported that she liad a garden at 
Jamestown, containing three or four acres, wliere in one 
year she had gathered a hundred bushels of excellent tigs, 
and that of her own provision she could keep a better house 
in Virginia tban in London for three or four hundred 
pounds a year, although she had gone there with little or 
notliing, Tlie planters found the Indian corn so much 
])etter for bread than wheat that they began to quit sowing 
it." 

It would seem that the colonists very soon began to raise 
too much tobacco, and therefore neglect a proper provision 
for crops on which their sustenance depended. The large 
quantity produced, moreover, was done at the cost of quality. 
Hence we see constant spiteful references to the crop in the 
communications of the home company (" The Virginia 
Company oj- Lorulov'"). In August, 1621, the}- write : " * 
* * We desire yow to give notice to the Collony tliat 
after this year the}' expect no furtlier supply of any neces- 
saries to be exchanged with them for tlieir darling toliacco." 
—Sept. 11, 1621. " * * We heartily wish tliat you 
would make some provision for the l)urning of all base and 
rotten stutf, and not sutler any but very good to be cured, 
at least sent home, whereby these would cei'tainly be more 
advanced in price upon less in the quantit}^ ; however, we 
hope that no bad nor ill-conditioned Tobacco shall be by 
compelling authoritie (abusing its power for public good to 
private benetit) putt uppon our Factor. * * Finding 
besides all former losses that neare 40 thousand waight sent 
home last yeare for the generall Company and JSIagazine, 
the better half hath not yielded 8 pence per pound, and the 
rest not al)Ove 2 pence, to which prices there is no possil)ili- 



118 Tobacco Culture. 

tie that tliey sliould arise this next yeare, so that there must 
be an ahatenient of the price of tobacco there ; neither can 
we yield (whicb is by some of tlie phxnters propounded) but 
by the ^^'hole company, not onl}' the adventurers of the 
magazine desired to continue the onld rate of 3 shillings per 
pound, and to as much in the goods sent hence as the to- 
bacco is esteemed less Avorth than that rate, for although for 
matter of protit it might go currant much alike, yet thereby 
we should soe maintain the Collony in their overweening 
esteem of their darling Tobacco, to the overthrow of all 
other staple comodities, and likewise continue the vile will 
they have conceived there and scandalous reports hero 
spread of oppression and exaccions from the Company, sell- 
ing all their comodities for three times tlie vallew of what 
they cost, upon which fond and unjust surmises they thinke 
it lawfull to use all manner of deceit and falsehood in their 
tobacco they put upon the Magazine." The " Virginia 
Company " was dissolved in 1624, and Charles I. (1625) took 
the government of the colony into his own hands. The 
control of business, however, did not cease to lie with the 
merchants of Great Britain. They continued to supply 
Virginia with goods not only up to, but many years after, 
the Revolution. Mr. Mordecai (" Richmond in Bij-gone 
D('^6- ") gives a very interesting account of the way these 
merchants managed. They were represented here by jun- 
ior partners, who were not permitted to marry in A^irginia. 
" They came with the prospect of being admitted as partners 
in some branch of the central establishment, and it might 
weaken the sordid attaclnnent to their patrons if they formed 
an attachment of a purer and tenderer nature to the fair 
daughters of their customers. They might make less strin- 
gent bargains, or be more indulgent in requiring payments." 
This prevented any social intercourse between these factors 
and the planters. " Competition did not interfere to reduce 
the profit on goods below 40 or 50 per cent., nor to raise 
the price of tobacco, which was generally taken in payment, 



Tobacco Cnltare. 119 

above IGs. 8d (say |2.78) or 18s {%^]) per luiiidrcd pounds; 
and at that time tlie sale of no tobacco other tlian good leaf 
or stemmed was permitted— the rest was burned. Previous 
to the Revolution, a convention of these British factors was 
held annually at Williamsburo', vheii the prices they loould 
aUoir for tobacco ims fixed for the current year, after the crops 
icere pretty iceU ascertained. * * Tliose planters who lived 
extravagantly were a[»t to fall in debt to their merchants, 
and would give bonds, renewed from year to year, with in- 
terest added, until a mortgage or deed of trust ensued, and 
thus some tine estates clianged hands from planter to mer- 
chant." The greed, injustice, and oppression, under this 
system, so long the rule in youthful Virginia, in the matter 
of the trading class, produced a hostility l)etween planter 
and merchant, so bitter and so al)iding, that despite the 
utter change of circumstanccis that had in the meantime 
come about, it is a fact that, as late as 1850, the mercantile 
community of the City of liichmond did nejf nuniher twody- 
five firms co)ii posed of witire Vire/iniavs. Before the war the 
enjoyment of comfort was so settled a condition with our 
people, that the politicians gave their thoughts more to the 
general aftairs of the country, than to the strengthening of 
their State by fostering a central market for its products, 
and a dis})osition to engage in manufacturing enterprises. 
iS'ow that the war is done, and comf )rt with us is only too 
much a thing of the ytast, these considerations cannot l)e 
longer disregarded. But, looking at our legislation, fi-om 
year to year, we do not see that harmony of interests so 
necessary to insure a perfectly successful issue. The tradi- 
tional animosity between town and country, rt'ferred to, does 
not appear to have Avholly died out, and instead of Virginia 
availing herself of the position nature has assigned her, as a 
centre of trade and manufactures, she continues too much 
the vassal of the people north of the Potomac. Had her 
representatives in the Legislature the business knowledge a 
l)odv circumstanced as thev are should have, we miii'ht look 



120 7obacco Culture. 

for measures that would unite all the people in the work of 
our regeneration, and in providing, in an intelligent way, for 
the obligations incurred in the past, and which the honor of 
the State demands shall be li(paidated.' 

The Governor and Council of Virginia were responsive 
to the Company's directions, as we see clearly by their com- 
munication of January, 1622: " For the drawinge of the 
People from the excessive plantinge of Tobacco, we have 
by the consent of the generull aa.-emblie restrayned them 
to 100 plants ye headd, uppon cache of which plantes there 
are to bee left butt 9 leaves, which portions as neare aa 
could be guessed, was generally coneeaved would be agree- 
able with the hundred waightyou have allowed. By which 
means, as also by the course we have taken for the keep- 
inge of every man to his Trade, we doubt nott but very 
much to prevent the immoderate plantinge of Tobiicco. 
But nothing can more encourage all men to the plantinge 
of corne in abundance, and soe divert them from plantino;e 
of Tobacco, than you would be pleased (since ytyou desire 
that greate plenty of corne he planted here as well for such 
multitudes of people as you hope yearly to send over, as for 
our owne selves) to allow us a Marchantuble Rate here for 
our corne, either to be paide by Bills of Exchange in Eng- 
land or in coniodities to be delivered here at 25 p. centum, 
the price of Is. the Bushell being proposed by the general 1 
assemblie was by us thought very reasonable, since the 
corne you send over, besides the hazard of being lost or 
spoyled at Sea, doth stand you as much or more the charge 
or freight in cask considered." The Governor and Coun- 
cil (Jan. 20, 1623), in explaining the reasons for slow re- 
turns to the home company, say : " * * Be.^ide there 
have and doe come daylie into this laud so many privatt 
adventurers equallie recommended unto us, as live times ye 
cropp of this yeare will not satisfie, there being not made 
above three-score thousand waight of Tobacco in the whole 
Collonnie, and so many privatt adventurers beside, that 



lobacco Culture. 121 

except we should deny free trade eontrarie to ye equitie of 
your order, doe and will take away much of our Tobacco, 
though we liave no warrant to tliern to reeeiv^e it, because 
many of their coniodities as saclce, sweeie meates and 
stronge liquors are soe acceptable 1o tlie people." 

John Kolfe was a man of enterprise in more ways than 
one. He not only started tlie planting of tobacco in the 
colony, i)nt was early concerned about its successful man- 
agement. He says (1616): " Tobacco, though an esteemed 
weed, is very commodious, which there thriveth so well 
that no doubt luit after a little more trial and expense in 
the curing thereof it will compare with the best in the 
West Indies." Improvement in " curing " was made the 
next year. Stitii says (1617) : " This year one Mr. Lam- 
bert made a great dis(,'overy in the trade of planting; for 
the method of curing toljacco then was in heaps; but this 
gentleman found out that it cured better upon lines, and 
therefore the Governor wrote to the company to send out 
lines for tluit purpose." It afterwards underwent a change. 
Says Glover : " They drive into the stalk of each plant a 
peg, and as fast as they are pegged, they hang them u[)on 
tobacco sticks, so nigh eacii other that they just touch, 
mucli after the nuiiuier thej' hang herrings in Yarmouth." 
By [)roclamatioii of April 4, lb28, it was directe*] that such 
a reasonable proportion of Tobacco only shall be planted 
as may be cultivated without injury to a [)lentiful crop of 
corn ; that the plants should be set at least four and a lialf 
feet apart, and tliat not more than twelve leaves should l)e 
gathered from each plant, and that great care sliould be 
taken not to burn it in the sweating. There is nothing 
anywhere to indicate that fire was used by the colonists in 
curing their tobacco, only the sun and air. The " burn," 
referred to above, was undoubtedly what is known now as 
" house-burn " or " pole-sweat," which results from over- 
crowding in the barn. Beverly (page 237) saj^s in this di- 
rection • "Their [the planters] tobacco houses are all built 
16 



122 lobaeeo Culture. 

of woofl, as open and airy as is consistent with keepin<jj out 
the rain, which sort of biiiMin^ is most convenient for the 
curing of their tobacco. They cover their tobacco houses 
with thin clap hoard.'' Clayton, to insure an early setting 
of plants, steeped the seed in an infusion of stable manure 
and soot. In sowing the bed, he mixed the seed with 
aslies. As to distance of plants in the field, it was, as we 
see in 1628, 4i feet; later, 4 feet; and still later 3 feet, as 
at present. Glovek says: " When the plant hath put out 
so many leaves as the ground will nourish to a substance 
and largeness that will render them merchantable, thej 
then take off the top of the plant. If the ground be very 
rich, they let a plant put out a dozen or sixteen leaves be- 
fore they top it; if mean, then not above nine or ten, and 
so according to the strength of the soil." We find in 1633 
a law directing the planters " to sow those kinds of tobacco 
which are of the long sorts, and all other sorts the next 
year shallbe left off and given over." Clayton says: 
" These are not only the two distinct sorts of sweet-scented 
and Aranoka ; but of each of these be several sorts much 
different, the seeds v^hereof are known by distinct names, 
they having given the names of those gentlemen most 
famed for such sort of tobacco, as ' Pryor ' seed, &c. Nay, 
the same sort of seed in ditiereut earths will produce to- 
bacco much different as to goodness. The richer the 
ground the better it is for Aranoka tobacco, whose scent is 
not much minded, tVieir only aim being to have it spacious, 
large, and to procure it of a bright colour." On this point 
Jones (pp. 34 and 39) says : There are two sorts of tobacco, 
viz- Oroonoko, the stronger; and sweet-scented, the 
milder : the first with a sharper leaf, like a fox's ear, and 
the other rounder, and with finer fibres; but each of these 
is varied into several sorts, much as apples and pears are; 
and I have been informed by the Indian traders that the 
inland Indians have sorts of tobacco much differing from 
any planted or used by the Europeans. * * * * 



Tobacco Culture. 128 

The land in the latilude bet^veen the James and York riv- 
ers seems most nicely adapted for sweet-scented or the finest 
tobacco ; for it is observed that the goodness detTeasctb 
the farther jou go nortliward of the one and the sonthvvard 
of the other. The soil referred to is the " light gray," 
that runs from York River through to Spottsylvania connt^^ 
and the tobacco now produced on this land is noted for its 
excjuisite flavor, and stands at the head of all others on the 
market in the manufacture of fine plug tobacco. 

But tliis may be I Ijelieve attributed in some measure to 
the seed and management as well as to the hind and lati- 
tude ; for on York River, in a small tract of land called 
Digges^ Ncck^ which is j)oorer than a great deal of other 
land in the same latitude, by a particular seed and manage- 
ment is made the famous croj) known by the name o^'-'-E. 
Dces,'^ remarkable for its mild taste and fine stnell" The {pro- 
duce of an aci'e on the l)est land appears to have been about 
1,660 pounds, and on poor land about 500 pounds. The 
tobacco put up by the colonists for export was in bundles of 
leaf, as at present; that tVom the West Indies was in l)alls, 
in the preparation of which molasses was used. The weight 
of tho hogshead was, in 1637, 350 pounds ; then 500 pounds; 
then 800 [lounds ; and tht'n as much as 1,100 pounds, which 
latter figure was not often exceeded [)riorto the Revolution. 

Tobacco had become t/w. staple crop of Virginia. James I. 
not only attacked tobacc(j through his " Countcrhlaste,''^ in 
which he described smoking as '■' loathsome to the ej'e, 
hurtful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the 
lungs, and in the black, stinkitig fume thereof, nearest re- 
sembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bot- 
tomless;" but he violated the charter granted to the com- 
pany, by extorting under his prarogative a revenue from its 
sale. Charles I., his successor, went farther, and [troposed 
that a monopoly should be granted him. To this the 
Governor and Council replied that tbey would contract 
with the King for all of their tobacco, at 3s, 6d. per 



124 lohacco Culture. 

pouTul, delivered here, or 4s. delivered in London, to 
be free of cnstoras of any kind. And to insure the tobacco 
to be of good quality, they inform the King that it is all to 
be examined by men sworn for that purpose, before it is 
shipped. They request the Kitig to take at least 500,000 
pounds weight, at the above prices, and if he should not be 
disposed to take the overplus, if any, that they may be per- 
mitted to ship it to the Low Countries, Ireland, Turkey, or 
elsewhere. They offer the contract for seven years, and 
request that if the consumption of England should exceed 
the supply from the Somer Islands, with the quantity 
above stipulated, that that quantity may be proportionably 
increased. In the event of the King's acceding to these 
terras, they request that the importation of Spanish tobacco 
may be prohibited ; and again repeat that they have taken 
special care to insure their tobacco to be of the best quality, 
and have appointed sworn triers to examine it after being 
cured and before it shall be shipped ; that they had also or- 
dered a proclamation to be made, requiring the planters to 
set their plants four and a half feet apart, and to gather 
twelve leaves only from a plant (instead of twenty-five or 
thirty, as some time before); that they had reduced the 
quantity to be planted as low as they well could, considering 
the population of the colony, and having a due regard to 
the culture of a sufficiency of corn. 

By act of Assembly (xxii. 1631) it was enacted that no 
person should tend over fourteen leaves, nor gather over 
nine leaves, upon a plant of tobacco. By xx. 1632, no per- 
son was permitted to tend any slips of old stalks of tobacco 
or any of the second crop, on forfeiture of the whole crop 
raised : by xxiv. 1632, all tobacco had to be taken down 
before the end of !N'oveniber, or else be accounted un- 
merchantable; and by i. 1633, the planters w^ere obliged to 
bring in all their tobacco to the appointed storehouses 
before the last day of December, where it was to be repack- 
ed, viewed, and tried by sworn men appointed for the 



Tohaeco Culture. 125 

purpose, the quantity entered to the several acconnts of the 
planters; and then all pa^'ments of debts were to he made 
at these storehouses in the presence of the keeper. JBy 
this same law, no tobacco shall be "made upp in rolle" 
except l)etwecn the first day of August and the last day of 
October (afterwards extended to the last day of December) 
and no old tobacco shall be made up at all. Price of 
tobacco limited to nine pence a pound. By act cxxii. 1658, 
"In case anie person or persons whatsoever shall false pack 
aiiie tobacco, that is, pack anie ground leaves to the quanti- 
t\' of live pounds in a hogshead, among his topp tobacco, it 
shall be lawful to give order for the burning it." By act 
xlvi, 1705 "If aii\' person or persons whatsoever shall pay 
away, or put to sale, or offer to pay away or put to sale, any 
hogshead of tobacco wliich he hath deceitfully, or hath 
caused or suffered to be deceitfully packed, by putting 
thereunto any stones, or intermingling therewith any dirt, 
sand, tobacco stalks, stems, ground leaves, or other trash 
whatsoever, shall forfeit, for every hogsljead so deceitfully 
packed, 1,000 lbs. of tobacco." In this year (1705), all to- 
bacco brought into Virginia from Carolina, or without the 
Ca[)e8, was forfeited. By act v, 1720, raising "seconds" 
was {>rohibited, and tobacco stalks to be cut up within 
twenty days after the plant was taken oft* Slaves were 
made this 3'ear a real estate. The first brought to the 
colony were on a Dutch man-of-war, in 1620, and numbered 
only twenty. 

Quite soon after tobacco had grown into any importance 
as an exporting crop, it became the currency of the colony. 
All values, whether of service or of property, were ex- 
pressed in pounds of tol)acco. Under such circumstances, 
ins[)ectors were absolutely necessary to preserve the stand- 
ard, and the laws made respecting these ofiicers are very 
numerous and very stringent. As time passed, and the 
producing power of the colony was increased through the 
introduction of negro slaves by the English and Dutch, the 



126 Tobacco Culture. 

volume of the crop grew beyond the liiuits of consumption, 
when prices declined of course. Both " seconds " and 
" primings " were put under the ban and burnt ; indeed, to 
enhance price by curtailing supply, a portion of the good 
tobacco took the same direction. Lord Culpepper, in 
1681, says : " The market is overstocked, and every crop 
overstocks it more. Our tliriving is our undoing, and our 
buying of blacks hath extremely contributed thereto by 
making more tobacco." Many of the settlers had been 
landed gentry, and had a taste for large estates and for a 
country life. In the time of the Compan}^, there was no 
difficulty about acquiring large estates, since every share of 
£12. 10s, entitled the holder to fifty acres. After the disso- 
lution of the Compau}', the government seems to have been 
careless in its grants of land, and many men acquired es- 
tates far larger tlian they could properly manage. The 
numl)er of rivers, and the ease with which the settlers 
could transport themselves and their goods from one place 
to another, favored this mode of life. The cultivation of 
tobacco, and the use of slave labor, also helped to bring 
this about. Slaves [negro] can seldom learn to cultivate 
more than one kind of crop ; and as Lol)acco exhausts the 
soil, it was necessary to be always taking fresh land into 
cultivation, and leaving that which had been already tilled 
to recover. Thus each planter needed far more land than 
he would have done under a more thrifty system. Various 
attempts were made to establish towns, but they came to 
nothing, chiefly because every one wanted to have the town 
within easy reach of his own plantation. 

By the act vii., 1686, all planting or replanting after the 
last day of June, and the shipping of tobacco stalks, were 
prohibited, as " seconds, slips, and late planted tobaccos, 
not having sufficient time to come to full growth and ma- 
turity, the same proves in generall to be damaged by the 
greenness, thinness, and other ill qualities thereof, although 
no other wett or moisture than what it hath in its oune 



lohacco Ctdtiire. 127 

natnrall case c(Mne to the same, and by reason of such dam- 
age tlie importer tliereof payes little or iioe cnstome for it, 
and yet tlie said tobacco l»einij: cut and mixed with stalks, 
is comniotily put to sale at underrates, and tliereby the 
commoditie in general much undervalued and reduced to 
soe low a price in this country, that many planters are, and 
will be by reason thereof, compelled to leave off [ilanting 
tobacco, and to employ themselves 'about husbandry, and in 
making and improving several manufactures, with which 
thiscounti-y hath been alwayes heretofiu'e furnished from 
England." In 1690, the prohibition above, in regard to 
limit of planting time, was repealed. 

As time advanced, the colony growing in numbers, and 
spreading back tVom tiilewater towards the mountains, its 
gcn'crnmental atfairs took manageable shape, and its trade 
was established on a basis of reasonable regularity. Tobacco 
warehouses were erected at all convenient points, at which 
were finuid inspectors as we lind them now. The war about 
these excellent officers is hy no means a new thing. We 
observe, in 1732, that Mr. Carter, inspector at Corotoman 
(Lancaster county), had this complaint lodged against him: 
" Circumstances are very plain that he spightfull}^ l)urnt 
James Polland's tobacco; and he tlireatened to split Peter 
River's head, and offered to turn him out of doors. * * 

The Inspectors passed very bad tobacco for some people, 
and often burnt good tobacco, &c." Whereupon the In- 
spectors present to the autliorities this certificate of their 
uprightness : " I think the Inspectors all very honest men, 
and as far as ever I see very cearfull in their office, not to 
pass any Tobacco but wliat was good, and in ray opinion 
have done equall Justis to all, &;c.'' " Warehouses, regu- 
lated substantially in the present mode, date from the time 
of Spottswood. (H. Jones, [)p. 55, 50.) While tobacco 
was largel}^ grown on our principal rivers below tide, and 
the market was wholly abroad, it was thought a hardship 
on such planters as could lade a vessel from their own 



128 Tobacco Culture. 

shores, to compel thein first to carry their crops to a dis- 
tant warehouse to be inspected ; and these clamors, after a 
few 3'ears, induced a repeal of the hiw. But its benefits 
had outweighed the inconvenience, and in time it was re- 
enacted ; and, as the culture of the plant spread westward, 
the planters acquiesced in the arrangement which improved 
the quality of their staple and prevented numerous frauds." 
— Cabell, page 19. In 1712, these houses were called 
(Act V) '' rolling houses," from the manner in which to- 
bacco was rolled to market in the hogshead. 

The planters, dwelling in a goodly land, and their fields 
tilled by nci^roes, who, in this capacity, occupied the posi- 
tion to which nature assigned them, and where only they 
have ever been of any service, had the means to dispense 
an elegant hospitality, and the leisure to store their minds 
with all the knowledge then accessible. Their children 
having the same surroundings, there grew up in Virginia 
a race of men noted for generosity, and for a breadth of 
view that fitted them to govern. Tliey had, in short, no 
taste for anything akin to Puritanism. Tliat found a home 
on a coast as sterile as its own soul, and to this day its rep- 
resentatives have shown an utter inaptitude to govern 
where any diversity of interests prevail. While it is true 
that many of the old Virginians were extravagant and im- 
provident, wliich we do not pretend to palliate, it is also 
true that they despised the meanness and hypocrisy that 
w^ould sell a negro for money, and then steal him away 
under pretence that "slavery was an ungodly business." 
Mr, Samuel Athawes, who was the Commission Merchant, 
in London, of Mr, Wm, Dangerfield, of l^evv Kent county, 
Virginia, 10th March, 1768, let Mr. D's draft on him for 
£100, go to protest. — He writes a letter explaining the 
reason, and observes : "Keep a Book yourself debiting me 
with the Toba you Consign and giving me credit for any 
Bills you may draw, or any goods which may be put to you 
— this will be a good guide and may prevent any further 



Tobacco Culture. 129 

accident of this Kind. — * * My money is my Fortune 
and at m}- time of life ought to be eircuhiting for improve- 
ment and not to be locked up in Virijiniaat tive pr ct. — * * 
gentlemen overvalue tlieir incomes, and live up to their 
suppositions without pr(~)viding against Calamities, accidents 
&c. * * In England, you must be sensible it is other- 
wise. It indeed must net-essarily be so, uidess a man is de- 
termined to be in a gaol. — If a man here, of a Landed Es- 
tate lives to the Extent of his Rents, what is to become of 
him if liis Tenants run off, if 'nis Houses want repairing, or 
the Land tax is raised; and if a merchant or any Trader 
does not lay up a I*ro|tortion of his Gain, what is to become 
of liim if he makes a bad debt ? * * I hope the present 
Generation will take warning and not l)e tlie means of re- 
ducing their Fainilys to such extremitys. 

As nearly as e-an be ascertained, the avei-age annual 
export of tobacco from the colonies, during the ten years 
ei.ding in ITO'J, was 28,858,006 pounds, of wliich England 
consumed (average) 11,260,659 pounds, and the rest of 
Euroi)e 17,598,0(»7 lbs. In 1746, tlie export was 40,000,000 
lbs. England con.suming 7,0<'0,C(»0 pounds; other European 
countries 33,000,00(1 pounds. The average annual export 
from 1703 to 1770, l)otli inclusive, was 66,780 hogsheads, or 
67,780,000 ins. In 1772, it was 97,799,203 pounds; in 1773, 
100,472,007 pounds; in 1774, 97,397,252 pounds; and in 1775, 
101,828,617 pounds. The total export of these four j-cars 
was 397,497,139 pounds, of which England consumed 147,- 
809,157 pounds; the rest of Europe 249,665,982 pounds. 
The total export for the seven years, from 1770 to 1782, was 
86,649,533 pounds, of wdiich the British captured 33,974,944 
pounds. It is oid}^ now and then that we see, in our early 
records mention of the price of tobacco. In 1619 the best 
sold for 3s., and second 18d. In this year planters were ad- 
monished by the Council "to thoroughly and loyally aire 
their tobacco before they bring it to the Magazine." In 
1622 Spanish tobacco sold for 18s., while Somer's Island and 
17 



130 Tobacco Culture. 

Virginia tobacco ruled at from 2s. 6d. to 3s. The crop of 1755 
failed through drought. In 1764, it was 3d. to 3|d. in Lon- 
don; indeed since 1648, it ruled oftener than otherwise at low 
figures. In 1769 at Antigua, it was held from od. to 6d. 
In 1755, lid. to 12|d., in London. In 1780, it advanced, 
at the Richmond warehouses, from £30, per hogshead, in 
January, to £75 per hogshead in December. These were 
" war times," when things generally are unsettled. 

In looking through the laws made for the government of 
the colony of Virginia, there is no subject that receives as 
much attention as tobacco. It not only furnished a circu- 
lating metlium in the transactions between man and man ; 
but it was the chief source of income enjoyed by the peo- 
ple. It was their surplus, and it was sold abroad; hence 
wealth increased. The planter observed a style of living 
seldom found in new countries ; indeed, in things generally, 
he was at once the artificer of a new empire, and an actor 
of prominence in the old. 

Through the kindness of Col. T. J. Massie, of Nelson 
county, we have had access to his family papers of old date. 
Among other things of interest we found the marriage por- 
tion of a young lady in those days to be generally 5<»,000 
pounds of tobacco. His ancestor, in 1793, obligated him- 
self to pay such a portion for account of his neighbor's 
daugbter, on her marriage, which he did (June 4, 1794), at 
the rate of 20s. per cwt., the value of a "crop tobacco of 
good weights and late dates, passed at the upper wai'ehouses 
on James or Yorke rivers." 

In closing this review of tobacco in old time, it is not out 
of place to look at the standing of Virginia at the end of 
the Revolution. The owner, in her own right, of all the ter- 
ritory covering what is now known as Virginia, West Vir- 
ginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wiscon- 
sin and Minnesota, east of the Mississippi river, located in 
the heart of the continent, with an ocean front, and the fin- 
est roadstead in the western hemisphere, on one side, and 



lobacco Culture. 131 

ample f)iitlets to it in another direction, through the Ohio 
and Mississippi ; yea more, possessed of the men who had 
the ability to govern it. In fact, no matter what might be 
the future of the territory that l)ecame the United States, 
she held an absolutely controlling pjosition. In a moment 
of weakness (so hard is it to govern ourselves with discre- 
tion in })ro8perity), like Samson, she submitted to be shorn 
of her power. For the sake of the Union slie gave up to it 
her " Northwest territory," thus confirmiiiu; a combination 
where she had nothing to gain, and everything to lose; and 
she has lost; for not content with the present to them of the 
bulk of her possessions, her partners have ROBBED her of 
a third of what was left. God vouchsafed her a prophet, but 
his warnings were in vain, and Patrick Henry stands to 
day as the monument to point forever to the fatuity of a 
people who believed all the world to be as lionest as them- 
selves. We, her posterity, are not proud of this act; on 
the contrary, have hearts loaded with bitterness that our 
Mother should have taken a step to entail upon her children 
the wretchedness that has come to their lot; that the recip- 
ients of her bounty should have been made through it so 
strong as to be able to heap insult upon her with impunity, 
and to crown their ingratitude by that damning crime, which 
cries to heaven, negro domination. 



2. — TOBACCO SINCE THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION, 

We shall endeavor to show here, in a general way, the 
progress of tobacco siijce the peace of 1783. We find, in 
the three years from 1787 to 1789, an export from the 
United States, of 267,311,000 pounds, and from 1790 to 
1799 inclusive, 817,937 hogsheads of leaf, and 960,744 
pounds of manufactured. The following table will exhibit 
the export, in detail, for the year ending September 
30. 1792 : 



132 



Tobacco Culture. 



States. 

New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts, 
Bhode Island, 
Connecticut, 
New York, 
New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, 
Delaware, 
Maryland, 
Virginia, 
North Carolina, 
South Carolina, 
Georgia, 

Total, 



ogs heads. 
3 


Manufactured 

lbs. 


1,221 


110,525 


1,429 
105 




1,952 
5 


1,600 


3,203 


2,140 


8 




28,992 
61,203 


780 
2,025 


3,54(1 
5.290 


624 


5,471 


180 



112,428 117,874 



In the table following, we show, from the year 1800 to 
1875, every iit'th year, the number of hogsheads of leaf aud 
pounds of manufactured exported, the average price per 
pound, and the money value of the leaf: 



EAK. 


Number of 


Average price 


Value. 


Manufactured, not 




Hogsheads. 


per ft).— Cts. 




including Snutt'.— Lbs 


1800 


76,686 
71 ,251 


73 

'8 




457,713 


1805 


$6,341,000 


428,460 


1810 


84,134 


5 


5,048,000 


529,285 


1815 


85,337 


8 


8,235,000 


1,034,045 


1820 


83,940 


8 


1,188,188 


593,358 


1825 


75,984 


Ql 


5,287,976 


1,871,368 


1830 


83,810 


5A 


5,833,112 


3,199,151 


1835 


94,353 


7i 


8,250,577 


3,817,854 


1840 


119,484 


61 


9,883,657 


6,787,165 


1845 


147,168 


44^ 


7,469,819 


5,312,971 


1850 


145,729 


5| 


9,951,023 


5,918,583 


1855 


150,213 




14,712 468 


9,624,282 


1860 


167,274 




15,906,547 


17,087,309 


1865 


149,032 




41,625,226 


7,398,293 


1870 




m 


21,100,420 
25.241.549 




1875 









Note. — Besides the "hogsheads," there were exported in 1855, 
26,279 cases and bales ; in 1860, 32,8-52 ; and in 1865, 61,616. Number 
of pounds not recorded in those years. In 1870 and 1S75, number of 
packages not given ; only the pounds. In 1870 there were 185,748,- 
881 pounds, all sorts ; and in 1875, 223,901,913 pounds. Of "manu- 
factured," number of pounds are not given in 1870 and 1875; onlv 
the value. In 1870 it was $1,582,985, and in 1875, $2,578,279. Prices 
of leaf not given in 1800, 1855, 1860 and 1865. 



Tobacco Culture. 133 

We observe how rapidly the use of tobacco grew during 
the last century and how it has continued to grow. The 
people of Europe and Asia, however, were not content to 
depend for their supply entirely on the western world, but 
they undertook its growth themselves. Last Spring we 
presented very full memoranda bearing upon its produc- 
tion throughout the globe, and we found that it is now a 
regular crop in nearly every country. The consumption in 
tliis country is, taking oiiicial figures, 48 cigars, 2 9-10 pounds 
of chewing tobacco, and 1 1-lG pounds of smoking to- 
bacco, per head of population. Tobacco is chewed only to a 
limited extent in other countries, but all the world are 
smokers. Germany, in her ^^cr capita consumption, ranks 
with the United States. As nearly as can be estimated, the 
total annual consumption of the world is two millions of 
tons. 

From A^irginia there went westward soon after the Revo- 
lution, many of her people. Carrying with them the know- 
ledge of their sta[)le crops, they naturally attempted their 
reproduction in the new homes they found beyond the 
mountains. These regions were well adapted to the growth 
of tobacco ; and whereas Virginia, less than a century ago, 
[troduced the bulk of tobacco grown in this country, now 
she has a rival in Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and the 
country north of the Ohio, not only respectable in the mat- 
ter ol quality, but exceedingly so in the direction of quan- 
tity. While western tobacco made good headway abroad 
jtrior to the war, it was during that struggle, when Vir- 
ginia was cut ott' entirely from supplying her wonted cus- 
tomers, that it gained a foothold so firm that it is hardly 
probable a dislodgment will ever be effected. However, 
this should not discourage us. Our boundaries are con- 
tracted, to he sure, l)ut there is space enough still left us to 
produce this crop in a way to command profitable custom- 
ers. The West makes good tobacco, but still it has made 
none as ij^ood as our best, and it is doubtful it it ever will. 



134 Tobacco Culture. 

We have the highest English authority for the assertimi 
that no conntry on the globe has yet produced a successful 
substitute for line Virginia tobacco, and that is a powerful 
point of advantage. Besides, we are not confined to one 
type. We can meet the demand of Europe for the large, 
heavy, waxy, dark tobaccos they so much esteem ; and for 
those in this country who chew as well as smoke, and the 
number is large, we make, in our fine sun-cured mahogany 
tobaccos, a leaf so well flavored by nature as to require but 
little aid to sait any taste; and then the bright yellow to- 
bacco finds use in adorning the plug filled with darker 
tobacco, and for smoking. Looking at all three of the 
types now peculiar to this State, and it is a fact that when 
produced of good quality, and well handled, it will always 
command a paying price. We cannot, in tobacco, as in 
anything else, sacrifice quality to quantity, and expect a 
handsome reward. 

It is our money cmp^ and we icant no better. We refer, as is 
manifest, to the bulk of our area. All the country nearly 
W'Cst of the E,appahannock, and south of the James, is 
essentially a tobacco region, and some of the finest leaf 
marketed is made in tlie mountains. The position of Vir- 
ginia wheat, in respect espt^cially of the flour demand from 
South America, will always make that crop in the Pied- 
mont and Valley country valuable ; but, taking it all in all, 
tobacco remains now, as it did at the beginning, our chief 
reliance. We do not, of course, counsel the production 
anywhere only of this crop. Every man should endeavor 
to raise enough of other things to maintain his establish- 
ment, and every prudent man does. We mean that to this 
crop our people must look mainly for the money that is to 
make their Avealth. We know that the " inevitable negro " 
will naturally be urged as an offset to this; but that very 
fact should render us personally the more industrious, and 
strengthen our resolve to be as far as possible self-sustain- 
ing. We must come to it sooner or later; will we gain 



Tobacco Culture. 135 

ajivthiiig l)y delay ? If a young man in Virginia has no 
capital to depend upon but his own energj^ it is not possi- 
ble for him to better his condition by going anywhere else 
in this country. If lie moves West, every mile he goes is 
that much farther from the market, which is the seaboard. 
He will have to lalxir as lie never dreamed of before, and 
be in a society with which he has nothing in common (thej^ 
have ceased to think as we do), rendering his hfe one of 
mere existence without enjoyment. If he goes North, the 
case will be infinitely worse. If farther South, he will en- 
counter a climate to which he is unused, and gain nothing 
in soils over what he left at home. But it is useless to urge 
what we conceive to l»e the proper course, without we can 
fortify it by example. We are happy to be able to present 
such an examj)le, and these cases are not few, as we could 
amply attest did our limits allow. We take the following 
from the Charlotte (Y a) Gazette: 

Splendid Results. — Messrs. J. S. and S. J. Adams, sons 
of Thomas J. Adams, the past year rented a portion of the 
land of Judge Wood Bouldin. They cultivated forty acres 
in corn, raising three liundred and sixt3--five barrels, or 
al)Out eighteen hundred bushels of corn; twenty-five acres 
in tobacco, of four thousand hills to the acre, with a pro- 
duction of about twenty-five thousand pounds,.and of ex- 
cellent quality ; thirt}' acres were sown in oats, yieldijig 
thirty-seven good stacks ; their wheat amounted to three 
hundred and twenty-five bushels, and was only about half 
a crop. After deducting the rent, expense of six hands and 
four horses, these young men hada little over two thousand 
dc^llars to divide between them for tlieir year's work. Such 
a result shows what labor, industry, and energy will accom- 
plish for farmer boys in Charlotte county. And labor, in- 
dustry, and energ}' will do the same in every county in this 
Commonwealth ! 

We have, as we know, three distinct tj-pes in our tobacco 
product. We believe the day will come when we can. with 



136 Tobacco Culture. 

profit, add another. The more diversitied we can make our 
money crop, the more certain we are of a market for ail it 
covers. The fourth type, we refer to is cigar tobacco. In a 
location as unpropitious as New England, this crop has 
been brought to great perfection. Farther south, in Lan- 
caster county, Pennsylvania, it is produced of still better 
quality. And ftu'ther South still, say i)) Virginia and North 
Carolina, we are persuaded a still better result can be 
gotten. We hope, at some time in the future, to present to 
our friends the results of our inquiries in this direction, 
and they have been continued through a series of years. 
The crop is so entirely difi'erent from anything to which we 
are accustomed that it cannot be undertaken without full 
instruction ; and we trust that none of our people will 
make the venture until this is supplied. They will cer- 
tainly be disappointed. 

3. — SOMETHING ABOUT THE PRESENT OUTLOOK ON THE TOBACCO 

QUESTION. 

Last winter we ventured some observations on the proba- 
ble drift of the tobacco trade m the year 1875. We showed 
the average consumption, lioth foreign and domestic, of 
American tobaccos, during the four j'cars from 1871 to 1874 
inclusive, and endeavored to ascertain the extent of the 
crop that would be marketed during the year ending 1st 
November last. In order not to flatter the planter, we 
placed the figures much higher than those of persons in 
the trade whose business it is to be thoroughly advised in 
such matters. On this basis of calculation, assuming the 
consumption to be the same as the average referred to of 
the previous four years, and there should have been on 
hand, throughout the world, November 1st, 1875, of Vir- 
ginia and Western tobacco, 38,500 hogsheads of 1,000 
pounds each. 

In this forecast there were contingencies we could not 
ignore, but to which no definite value could then be assigned. 



Tobacco Culture. 137 

They were ; 1, diniinislied coiisuniption tlirough high prices ; 
2, the use of substitutes ; and 3, increased production in 
other countries under the stimulus of liigh prices. Wish- 
ing to be fully advised us to whether or not these contin- 
gencies operated in respect of the European demand for 
American tobaccos, we sought the counsel of the best author- 
ity in London, Mr. A B. Bremner. The response was very 
full and satisfactory. lie showed the figures of " deliver- 
ies " in Great Britain and Bremen, and they exhibit no ma- 
terial falling off, as comp'ired with [)revious years; but the 
decHne in "imports" was enormous. Speaking generally 
as to Europe, he says: "lam inclined to think the high 
[)rices of American liave had much more effect in reducing 
stocks than in diminishing the consumption. In Bremen, 
u good criterion, as to the German consumption, can be 
found from the prices, which for fine leaf have been as high 
as equal to 12d. to 14d. here [London], a scale of figures 
that we never saw before, not even dui'ing your civil war. 
This shows plainly that high prices have not hindered the 
Germans from taking American tobaccos." And yet this 
did not authorize prudent operators laying in their usual 
heavy stocks on the expectation of continued good prices 
from the consumer, especially in view of the large crop 
planted last yejir in America. He says again : As to sub- 
stitutes, so far from a large increase, it is but small in the de- 
livery, and a very large falling off" m the suppl}'." And " ex- 
cept East Indian (which is almost useless here, unless it be- 
comes greatly improved), there are no signs of any increased 
production in other couiitries." In fact, "there reall}^ seems 
to be no other toluicco to interfere with that of the United 
States. There certainly has not been this year (December 2(), 
1875). American tobacco has emphatically been ' king.' " 

ISTor, looking at the figures in the Report of the Commis- 
sioner of Internal Revenue, does there appear to have been 
any particular falling oft" in American consumption, if we 
are to judge by the measure of American production of 
18 



138 Tobacco Culture. 

manufactured tobacco. Quoting from the Annual Tobacco 
Review, January 1, 1876, of Messrs. J. S. Gans & Son, 
New York, whose opinions have weight in the trade: 
There is, according to all jtrobabilit}', a season of great ac- 
tivity before us, for not onlj' the Regies of France, Italy 
and Spain will be in the market, but also Great Britain, 
Germany, &c., will be desirous to replenish, whilst the 
home demand will be at least equal to that of former years. 
As for prices, we do not look for extremes either way; the 
quantity is not large enough to cause an unproportionate 
decline in values, and yet it is too large to sustain high 
ratings. To the planter we w^ould say, you have raised last 
year a crop of tobacco not too large, but yet sufficient to 
supply all likely demands. Do not expect to sell at extrava- 
gant rates; the tendency of the times is for moderate prices." 
The rains last Summer, continuing for so many weeks, 
had the eflect to make the tobacco, throughout the country 
generall}', very leafy, but with little substance. Hence, the 
proportion of really first-class tobacco, in the crop being 
marketed this year, is far from large. In observing thi; 
tendency of the trade, we find quite a demand is setting in 
from Europe for our " sun-cured " and " fancy brights," be- 
sides the usual call for what good "heavy shipping" we 
have to offer. Germany is taking, with reasonable freedom, 
sun-cured "lugs" and England a great deal of "bright 
yellow " leaf These are both of such superior flavor, as 
compared with what was required by old-time tastes "across 
the water," that we are persuaded the demand will be ven- 
ular hereafter for them. Taking a general view of the sit- 
uation, and no product for sale in this country has the same 
promise of remunerative returns this year as tobacco. Nor 
is there anything to justify the opinion that there should not 
be planted a full crop this spring. It is an article of uni- 
versal consumption ; and the times must be hard indeed, 
throughout the world, if the demand will not consume what 
is produced. It has done it heretofore, and there is nothing 



Tobacco Culture. 139 

to indicate a radical cbaiiijo now, in this respect, in the 
luil)it or intention of mankind. 

When we consider the efforts being made in Kentucky, 
Tennessee and Missouri, to [)roduce an article equal to that 
of Virginia and North Carolina, we cannot Hag in our res- 
olution to bring ours " fully up to the standard." We must 
not allow our strong fortress to be taken ; so what we plant 
this Spring, let it be cultivated and manured so thorougldy 
as to command its just due, tlie " very top of the market." 
We speak, of course, to white men. Since the negroes 
liave been freed, too many of them refuse to work as labor- 
ers, but desire to take land " on shares." This has had, and 
will continue to have, tlie effect of tbrowiug on the market 
innumerable small crops, and nothing but the most careful 
and faithful assortment by wareliousemen will keep the gen- 
eral range on a basis of reasomible uniformity. Without 
this is (lone, the market is bound to l)e demoralized. 

We cannot close this sketch without referring to what 
North Carolina has done, not only for her own people, but 
for the southern counties of Virginia. To her we are in- 
debted for " bright yello IV tobdrco." Capt. Abishai Slade, of 
Caswell county, produced it first, and it was in the year 
1856. When we see that the sales of tliis tobacco, at Dan- 
ville, Reidsville, Winston, Milton and Durliam, now reach 
millions of dollars every year, we can understand the obli- 
gation we owe to Capt. Slade, and the place his memory 
should hold in the gratitude of our people. While all the 
upper and western counties of North Carolina are fitted to 
produce this type in great perfection, it is doubtful if the 
world anywhere can show anything equal to what is now 
grown regularly in Granville and Caswell. Virginia and 
North Carolina form a section by themselves. The interests 
of both are identical ; and we trust that each year will bind 
them closer together in those ties of brotherhood that should 
characterize men who stood shoulder to shoulder in a strug- 
gle, by tlie side of which the Revolution was as "child's play." 



140 Tobacco Culture. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MEDICINAL ACTION OP TOBACCO. 

The effect of tobacco upon the human constitution is a 
subject that has been freely discussed by scientific men of 
every country. " Is toi)acco injurious " is a query which 
medical men are often called upon to meet. So general 
and diversified is its use, and so enormous its consumption 
in every class of society, and among the people of all na- 
tions, that the consideration ot its baneful or non-delete- 
rious eflfects, claims in this work some notice pertaining 
to the subject. I will therefore bring this matter before my 
readers in my last chapter, telling them of the action of 
tobacco physiologically, and the medicinal uses in which the 
plant may be administered with benefit. No article of 
luxury is more sought after, more generally used or causes 
more discomfort, if indeed not actual suffering, when the 
habitual user of it cannot procure the weed. Physicians 
may denounce it, writers issue page after page upon its 
baneful qualities, men and women proclaim against it, and 
even the pulpit pour a flood of eloquence, denunciatory of 
the devil's weed, threatening anathemas upon its users, but 
all to no purpose, except perhaps to increase its consump- 
tion by drawing attention and securing new consumers of it. 
It seems to supply some needed want, hence men will have it. 

I do not advocate the use of the weed either as a blessing 
or believe it a curse. I do not proclaim it a benefit to hu- 
manity as an article of consumption, but I mean to inquire 
into its properties and virtues, and see if I cannot discover 
and give to my readers some of the causes and reasons 
why this noxious Indian weed is penetrating to every nook 
and corner of the world. 

TOBACCO AS A MEDICINE. 

" Tabacum " or Tobacco is known in German as " Ta- 
bakblatter," in Spanish as " Tabaco," and in French as 
" Tabac." The crenus : " Nicotiana Tabacum." 



Tobacco Culture. 141 

Tobacco as a medicine is used in various forms. It is 
classed among remedial agents as emetic, narcotic and ca- 
thartic, or laxativ^e. We have infusion of tobacco, that is, 
leaves of the plant steeped in water. This is generally used 
as an injection, in (;ertain affections of the bowels, such as 
Intussusception, Hernia, and Painters' Colic. Then there 
are : the Oil of Tobacco, Ointment of Tol)acco and Wine 
of Tobacco. Tobacco is also a relaxant and antispa'^modic, 
that is it possesses the quality of relaxing a patient and 
allaying spasm. It is also a poison, and a ver\' violent one. 
Its antagonists and antidotes are Tannic Acid, Caustic Al- 
kalies, and the Iodides. A person has been poisoned by an 
over-dose of tobacco in one of its forms. What is to be 
done? First he has convulsions, then lies in a cold, death- 
like and semi-paralyzed condition. Give him a prompt 
emetic, or use the stomach pump to evacuate the contents 
of the stomach. The action of his heart is very feeble, also 
the lungs. Produce artiiicial respiration and give him 
stimulants, brandy and ammonia. The physician may also in- 
ject strychnia under his skin. Ointment of tobacco is used 
when local application is demanded, as for instance in some 
forms of skin diseases. Any administration of tobacco, 
however, be it internally or locally, nnist be with great care 
or fatal consequence may follow. Wine of tobacco is ad- 
ministered most generally, it being rather a favorite prepa- 
ration with those who have cause to use it. Severe cases 
of asthma have been relieved most signally by its use in 
very small doses, a few drops given at intervals. This 
malady is also frequently treated by the fumes of burning 
tobacco, hence sufferers from it often resort to cigars for 
relief, cigars made for the purpose, the leaves of which have 
been steeped in Nitrate of Potash water, and combined 
with the leaves of Hyoscyamus or Grindelia Robusta. 
Four or five di'ops of the wine of tobacco administered 
every night, on a lump of sugar, will very often cure the 
most obstinate cases of constipation. Tetanius or locked- 



142 Tobacco Culture. 

jaw is often treated with tobacco. The wine of tobacco 
given internally, and light cataplasms or tobacco poultices 
applied, will sometimes act well and reduce the muscular 
rigidity. Sometimes injections of the infusion are used. 
The preparations of the plant mentioned, are all valuable 
remedies in this terrible and most fatal malady. JBy it the 
spasms are suspended, the jaws unlocked and food allowed 
to be taken. Care must be exercised to watch the effect of 
each dose, or you will accomplish that which you are labor- 
ing to avert, the death of the patient. 

Tobacco also has an action on the skin and kidneys, 
hence it is sometimes used in dropsical atfections, but it is 
so disagreeable in its effects that few patients will continue 
its use, after having had a dose or two, sometimes acting 
two or three ways at one time. 

1. — PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION. 

T have said that tobacco, in the main, has two actions. 
emetic and narcotic. It is upon this latter narcotic princi- 
ple on which are founded all the enchanting pleasures, and 
great allurements of its use. This is why 'tis sought for 
by the millions. This is wliy the poor man will forego 
food and suffer much privation to procure it, and why the 
man of great wealth will hesitate at no expense, however 
great, in order to secure the finest brand the world pro- 
duces. This is what is extending its use, and finding for 
it consumers in every part of the liabitable globe. From 
its narcotic properties proceed all its charms. Like opium 
it calms the agitations of our corporeal frame, and soothes 
the anxieties and distresses of the mind. Like music it 
soothes the agitations, and allays the passions of men. 

It was some time after the use of tobacco as snuff in 
Europe that the smoking of it began. It soon became im- 
mensely popular, and it was not long until the herb was 
prohibited in certain localities. Physicians declared it 



Tobacco Culture. 143 

liurtful to health, and the priests denounced its use as a sin. 
Po})e Urban viii. issued a bull excomraunieating all persons 
found taking snuff whilst in church. Sultan Amurath 
made smoking a ca}iital offense; whilst the penalty paid 
for smokino; in Russia was to have the nose cut off. The 
strenuous way in which it was opposed by JarnevS I. of 
England is a curious matter of histor}' : Without the con- 
sent of his })arliament he raised the duty on the weed from 
2d to 6s. lOd per pound, and his famous counterblasts to 
tobacco declared smoking " loathsome to the eye, hurtful 
to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, 
and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling 
the horrible stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless." 
But Kingly and Priestly wrath were futile against the far 
and wide extension of the use t)f the herb, and at the 
present day it has become perhaps the most generally dif- 
fused luxury in existence; for according to statistics, the 
average consumption of tobacco by the whole human race 
of one thousand millions, is seventy ounces a head per 
annum. And yet this enormous consumption of the article 
is ever on the increase. There is no retrograding, no less- 
ening of the amount consumed, be the prices high or low. 
Taxation is no bar. Preventive legal enactments have no 
effect, men will smoke, men will chew. 

This general and wonderful consumption of the article 
leads us to discuss the question a!s to whether or not its use 
is deleterious to the human constitution. 

IS TOBACCO INJURIOUS. 

This question is frequently asked, and has often been the 
subject of essays. That its excessive use is injurious to the 
majority of persons, there can be little doubt. That even 
used in moderation, it still has a baneful effect upon many 
constitutions. 

Tobacco is used as a luxury because of its narcotic or 



144 Tobacco Culture. 

sedative effect. Many men poison themselves, by con- 
tinued excessive use. Tobacco has a powerful effect upon 
the action of the heart. Some persons are decidedly bene- 
fited by smoking a cigar, when laboring under any excite- 
ment, the sedative effect of the weed allaying arterial force 
and consequent brain excitement. Others are benefited by 
a smoke immediaiely after a full meal, claiming that the 
sense of fullness and heaviness passes away by the influence 
of the weed. Others again claim that " a smoke " is an aid 
to digestion, and that it promotes a laxative condition of 
the bowels, relieving constipation, &c. In this latter action 
it undoubtedly is effective, inasmuch as it is a powerful re- 
laxant, and in this way exerts a beneficial influenceupon the 
bowels. As a promoter of digestion I am rather inclined to 
doubt. It undoubtedly favors a more free flow of gastric 
juice, but it is more likely that a greater number of 
persons are injured in their digestive organs, than bene- 
fitted by the use of tobacco. Many and numberless are the 
cases of "smokers sore throat, smokers sore noses and sore 
eyes." Innumerable are the cases of indigestion attributed, 
and no doubt justly, to the use of too much plug tobacco, 
and too many cigars. Chewers expectorate saliva which 
should be retained to lubricate the mouth, throat and other 
digestive organs, and which is useful as an assistant in the 
proper digestion of the food. Many chewers and smokers 
complain to their medical advisers that they have dry, 
husky and inflamed throats. These arise from a deficiency 
of saliva, the lack of which is brought about by inveterate 
chewing or smoking. Another class of sufferers are those 
whose nerves are affected. This is a very large class, and 
physicians are continually called upon by habitual users of 
the weed, to prescribe for pain in the head, vertigo, ner- 
vousness and pain, and palpitation of the heart. Indeed so 
common has the heart complaint become, that it is now 
known by the general name of " tobacco heart." To all 
such persons I would most emphatically say, tobacco is in- 



lobaeco Culture. 145 

jurious, tobacco will render your life miserable, and shorten 
your days. 

It has often been asserted by the advocates of temper- 
ance that the use of tobacco prepares the way and leads to 
the use of alcoholic stimulants. This to a certain extent 
may be true, but on the other hand it is claimed that as 
men will use a stimulus in some shape multitudes content 
themselves with tobacco, who otherwise would betake them- 
selves to '-drink." From its stimulant narcotic effects it 
seems to answer a purpose with' the millions who would 
otherwise seek solace and comfort in alcohol and opium. 
This being the case it yet remains an open question as to 
whether the use of tobacco is beneficial or a curse; for the 
public weal or the public woe. 
19 



146 Tobacco Culture. | 

To My Cigar. 

"Yes, social friend, I love thee well, 
In learned doctors spite : 
Thy clouds all other clouds dispel, 
And lap rae in delight. 

What though they tell, with phizzes long, 

My 3^ears are sooner passed ? 
I would reply, with reason strong, 

They're sweeter while thej^ last. 

And oft, mild friend, to rae thou art 

A monitor, though still ; 
Thou speak'st a lesson to my heart. 

Beyond the preacher's skill. 

Thou'rt like the man of worth, who gives 

To goodness every day, 
The odour of whose virtues lives 

"When he has passed away. 

When in the lonely evening hour, 

Attended but by thee. 
O'er history's varied page I pore, 

Man's fate in thine I see. 

Oft as thy snow}- column grows. 

Then breaks and falls away, 
I trace how mighty realms thus rose, 

Thus tumbled to decay. 



Tobacco Vulture. 147 

Awljile, like thee, earth's masters bnri), 

And smoke and fume around, 
And then, like thee, to ashes turn. 

And mingle with the ground. 

Life's but a leaf, adroitly roH'd, 

And time's the wasting breath, 
That late or early, we behold. 

Gives all to dusty death. 

From beggar's frieze to monarch's robe 

One common doom is pass'd : 
Sweet nature's works, the swelling globe. 

Must all burn out at last. 

And what is he who smokes thee now ? — 

A little moving heap, 
That soon like thee to fate must bow, 

With thee in dust must sleep. 

But though thy ashes downward go, 

Thy essence rolls on high ; 
Thus, when my body must lie low. 

My soul shall cleave the sky," 



148 Tobacco Culture. 

''Smoking Spiritualized." 

This Indian weed, now withered quite 
Though green at noon, cut down at night, 

Shows thy decay — 

All flesh is hay : 
Thus think, and smoke tobacco. 

The pipe so lily-like and weak, 
Does thus thy mortal state bespeak ; 

Thou art e'en such — 

Gone with a touch : 
Thus think, and smoke tobacco. 

And when the smoke ascends on high. 
And thou behold'st the vanity 

Of worldly stuff' — 

Gone with a puff": 
Thus think, and smoke tobacco. 

And when the pipe grows foul within. 
Think on thy soul defiled with sin ; 

For then the fire 

It does require : 
Thus think, and smoke tobacco. 

And seest the ashes cast away, 
Then to thyself thou mayest say 

That to the dust 

Return thou must : 
Thus think, and smoke tobacco. 



Tobacco Culture. 14'J 

PART SECOND. 

Was this small plant for thee cut down ? 
So was the plant of great renown, 

Which merc}^ sends 

For nobler ends : 
Thus think, and smoke tobacco. 

Doth juice medicinal proceed 
From such a naught}^ foreign weed ? 

Then what's the power 

Of Jesse's flower? 
Thus think, and smoke tobacco. 

The promise, like the pipe, inlays. 
And by the mouth of faith conveys, 

What virtue flows 

From Sharon's rose : 
Thus think, and smoke tobacco. 

In vain the unlighted pipe you blow. 
Your pains in outward means are so, 

'Till heavenly fire 

Your heart inspire : 
Thus think, and smoke tobacco. 

The smoke like burning incense towers; 
So should a praying heart of yours 

Witb ardent cries 

Surmount the skies : 
Thus think, and smoke tobacco. 



p 



RRATA. 



On page 19, twenty-eighth line, for "consumed" read cultivated. 
On page 111, twenty-first line, for "$5.00 " read $500.00. 



INDEX. 



Bulking, 

Chemical Composition 

Chat with Poor Man, 

Climate and soil, 

Colonial History, 

Connecticut Valley, 

Cultivation, 

Curing, 

Cutting and Housing 

Dry House, 

General Observations 

Histology, 

Land Preparation, 

Lancaster eount.y, 

Manures, 

Maryland Cultivation, 

Medicinal Action, 

New York Method, 

Packing or Prizing, 

Seed, . 

" Bed, . 

" Plants, 
Setting Plants, . 
Shipping, 

Smoking Sj)iritualize 
Sorting, 
Statistics, 
Stripping, . 
Suckering, . 
Sweating, 
To My Cigar, 
Topping, 
Transplantnig, . 
Treatment of Soil, 
Varieties, 
Virginia Culture, 
Worm, 



92, 93 
9-12 

12-15 

22-24 

111-140 

4(3-48 

38-43, .59 

81-89 

68 

• 73-81 

97-106 

5-9 

35-38 

55-57 

54 

44-46 

140-145 

48 

93, 94 
24-28 
43, 57 

28-32, 67 

35-38 

53, 54 

148, 149 

89-92 

106-111 

81-89 

64 

94-97 

146, 147 

65 

44, 52, 58 

32-35 

15-22 

48 

60-64 



The j^RANKLiN Leaf." 



A New and Valuable Variety of Tobacco. 



Cross from Virginia and Cuba Plants 



PENNSYLVANIA HAVANA. 



This variety of Tobacco has been found most profitable 
and particularly well adapted to the soils and climate of the 
Eastern and Middle States, It yields most abundantly, and 
in quality is very desirable for cigars, both as wrappers and 
fillers. It is very similar to the variety known as the 
"Duck Island Leaf," The variety was originated by Dr. 
B. Rush Seusency. It is delicate in texture, but strong and 
weighty, and has a fine, silky leaf. It cures easily, of a 
beautiful, (hirk brown color, which makes it very desirable 
for wrappers. 

Price, per package, One Dollar. 

Sent, postage paid, to any address, on receipt of price. 

Address 

Franklin Tobacco Company, 

(Box 111) Chamber sbitrg^ Pa. 



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